2016 National Award Recipients

Avi Hofstein, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Award Citation: For his contribution through research to the understanding of the field of learning in and from chemistry laboratories.

Warren J. Hehre, Wavefunction, Inc. and University of California, Irvine

Award Citation: For his significant contributions to the field of computational quantum chemistry.

Bruce E. Logan, Penn State University

Award Citation: For the invention and development of devices that use microorganisms to convert waste biomass into useful products such as electrical power and hydrogen gas.

Antonio Facchetti, Polyera Corporation and Northwestern University

Award Citation: For seminal contributions to the chemistry and characterization of organic electronic materials and their integration into commercially viable unconventional electronic and photonic devices.

Steven H. Strauss, Colorado State University

Award Citation: For the synthesis and application of highly fluorinated superweak anions and structural and spectroscopic characterization of perfluoroalkylated fullerenes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Scott J. Miller, Yale University

Award Citation: For his discovery of minimal peptidic catalysts for important enantioselective and site-selective reactions, bridging the fields of enzymology and small-molecule catalysis in completely unprecedented ways.

Vincent L. Pecoraro, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Award Citation: For outstanding contributions to research and major service in the discipline of inorganic chemistry.

Luis A. Colón, State University of New York at Buffalo

Award Citation: For his encouragement and selfless dedication to increase the number of underrepresented students pursuing advanced degrees in chemistry.

Carol A. Fierke, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Award Citation: For encouraging the careers of women in chemistry by working with the University of Michigan ADVANCE program, hiring and promoting women faculty, and mentoring students.

Thomas E. Goodwin, Hendrix College

Award Citation: For blending green organic synthesis and mammalian chemical communication into a superb research experience for undergraduates at the interface of biology and chemistry.

William R. Heineman, University of Cincinnati

Award Citation: For his numerous innovative and interdisciplinary research contributions and educational advances in the areas of electroanalytical and bioanalytical chemistry.

Thomas P. Russell, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Award Citation: For his pioneering research on the surface and interfacial behavior of polymers.

Harold McNair, Virginia Tech

Award Citation: For outstanding contributions to the science of chromatography and to the education of chromatographers throughout a career spanning seven decades.

Nicholas L. Abbott, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Award Citation: For creative advances related to the science and application of colloidal and interfacial phenomena in liquid crystalline systems.

Ted C. Germroth, Eastman Chemical Company

Award Citation: For significant innovative achievement that has resulted in important commercial application in copolyester, polyolefin, cellulosic, and specialty polymer products and processes.

Mercouri Kanatzidis, Northwestern University

Award Citation: For pioneering achievements in the development and undersrtanding of metal chalcogenide chemistry.

Karen I. Goldberg, University of Washington

Award Citation: For groundbreaking work leading to fundamental advances in our understanding of the mechanisms of reactions crucial to the functioning of homogenous catalysts.

Edmund M. Carnahan, The Dow Chemical Company

Award Citation: For the invention and development of olefin block copolymers made via chain shuttling catalysis, a gateway to new advanced polyolefins.

Jonathan S. Owen, Columbia University

Award Citation: For his deep chemical understanding of the synthesis and surface chemistry of colloidal quantum dots.

Steven M. Cramer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Award Citation: For contributions to a molecular-level understanding, adsorption isotherm formalisms, and the development and application of chromatographic bioprocesses for the purification of biopharmaceuticals.

Jean-Luc Bredas, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Award Citation: For seminal theoretical contributions to the understanding and design of new π-conjugated molecular and polymer materials in the fields of organic electronics and photonics.

Roberto Car, Princeton University

Award Citation: For co-founding the field of ab initio molecular dynamics, and for numerous contributions to first-principles simulations of disordered materials and liquids. 

H. N. Cheng, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Award Citation: For his exemplary efforts and leadership in ACS Governance and for his consistent notable contributions in a large number of assignments.

Edward I. Solomon, Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Award Citation: For developing spectroscopic methods and defining electronic structure contributions to function in electron transfer and dioxygen activation and reduction by copper and iron metalloenzymes.

Henry E. Bryndza, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Inc.

Award Citation: For his leadership of transformational technology development at the interface of chemistry and biology, ushering in a new era of improved, environmentally sustainable production for renewably resourced materials.

Thomas W. Muir, Princeton University

Award Citation: For development and application of expressed protein ligation in the understanding of intracellular signaling pathways such as the histone code for chromatin structure and function.

Alois Fürstner, Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim/Ruhr, Germany

Award Citation: For seminal contributions to methodology development in synthetic organic chemistry, especially in transition metal catalysis, and to step- and atom-economical syntheses of complex natural products.

Richard D. DiMarchi, Indiana University

Award Citation: For the discovery of Humalog® and the development of Forteo® and rGlucagon®. He pioneered the field of chemical-biotechnology and mixed peptide agonists for the treatment of metabolic diseases.

Julia Winter, Alchemie Games, Detroit Country Day School, Beverly Hills, Michigan

Award Citation: For being a teacher of the absolute highest caliber who constantly challenges her students, teaches with passion and inventiveness, and accepts nothing less than excellence from them.

Eric N. Jacobsen, Harvard University

Award Citation: For his contributions, both fundamental and practical, to the fields of asymmetric catalysis and organic synthesis.

Phil S. Baran, The Scripps Research Institute

Award Citation: For the development of innovative methodology and its applications in the total synthesis of complex natural products.

François P. Gabbaï, Texas A&M University

Award Citation: For his work on the synthesis of electron-deficient main group compounds and the study of their anion binding and redox properties.

Mark A. Ratner, Northwestern University

Award Citation:  For founding the field of molecular electronics; insistence that theory work with experiment; collaborative research in election transport/transfer, quantum dynamics, energy capture/storage; and related issues.

Albert J. R. Heck, Netherlands Proteomics Centre and Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Award Citation: For his outstanding work in the field of protein mass spectrometry and his role in the development of enabling technologies for both proteomics and structural biology.

Annie B. Kersting, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Award Citation: For seminal contributions to understanding radionuclide behavior in the environment, mentoring students and postdocs, and developing successful education programs in nuclear forensics and environmental radiochemistry.

Peter Atkins, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Award Citation: For using the written word so effectively to spread an appreciation and understanding of the contributions of chemistry to the modern world.

Eric J. Schelter, University of Pennsylvania

Award Citation: For his studies on the electronic structures, bonding, and redox properties of f-block complexes for novel separations strategies.

Eric Block, University at Albany, SUNY

Award Citation: For his seminal, career-spanning research on sulfur-containing natural products, especially those from genus Allium plants, and on the chemistry of olfaction.

Kenneth S. Schweizer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Award Citation: For the pioneering development of microscopic predictive and unified theories of the structure, phase behavior, and slow dynamics of complex liquids, glasses, and gels

Ronald T. Raines, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Award Citation: For extraordinarily creative contributions to diverse aspects of peptide chemistry, including identifying the structural role of stereoelectronic effects and the development of new ligation methods.

Aditya Bhan, University of Minnesota

Award Citation: For contributions to heterogeneous catalysis through detailed kinetic and mechanistic studies of acid catalyzed C–C bond formation and methods for conversion of methanol feedstocks.

Michael A. Brook, McMaster University, Canada

Award Citation: For his creative approaches to the synthesis of siloxane materials with controlled morphology, including silica and silicones, and the application of these strategies to biomaterials.

George C. Schatz, Northwestern University

Award Citation: For broad-ranging contributions to theories in physical chemistry, including research in reaction dynamics, plasmonic spectroscopy, self-assembly of soft materials, and carbon-based nanomaterials.

Frederick D. Lewis, Northwestern University

Award Citation: For his elegant, incisive research on photochemistry of molecules from ketones to DNA, and his mechanistic analyses that explain, clarify, and generalize these experimental results.

Michael M. Thackeray, Argonne National Laboratory

Award Citation: For life-long contributions to the scientific research, discovery, and technological development of lithium battery electrode materials.

J.C. (Tito) Scaiano, University of Ottawa, Canada

Award Citation: For his pioneering contribution to understanding organic photochemistry and the chemistry of short-lived reaction intermediates, and creatively applying their principles to contemporary problems.

Mieczyslaw M. Boduszynski, Retired, Chevron Energy Technology Company

Award Citation: For his significant contributions to the understanding of the molecular composition of petroleum and for his profound influence on a generation of petroleum chemists.

Richard S. Moog, Franklin & Marshall College and The POGIL Project

Award Citation: For developing and encouraging the use of innovative, student-centered teaching approaches and fostering true collaboration among professionals that benefits the entire chemical education community.

E. Philip Horwitz, Eichrom Technologies, LLC

Award Citation: For the development of novel solvent extraction processes and extraction chromatographic materials for the analytical, preparative, and process-scale separation of actinides and fission products.

Donna G. Blackmond, The Scripps Research Institute

Award Citation: For fundamental kinetic and mechanistic studies that help to bridge the gap between heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis of organic reactions.

Juswinder Singh, Ankaa Therapeutics

Award Citation: For pioneering the development of targeted covalent drugs that are having a transformative impact on the treatment of cancer patients.

Robert G. Griffin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Award Citation: For the transformational solid-state NMR methods of dipolar recoupling and high-frequency dynamic nuclear polarization that enable structure determination in complex chemical, materials, and biological systems.

Andrei Tokmakoff, The University of Chicago

Award Citation: For his contributions to the development of coherent two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy and its application to equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics.

Douglas A. Mitchell, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Award Citation: For his contributions toward the mechanistic understanding and reegineering of natural product biosynthesis.