Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Purpose

The Peter J. Dunn Award was established in 2016 by the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable (ACS GCIPR) to recognize excellence in the research, development, and execution of green chemistry that demonstrates compelling environmental, safety, and efficiency improvements over current technologies in the pharmaceutical industry and its allied industrial partners. The inaugural award was given to Peter J. Dunn of Pfizer and subsequently named in his honor.

Description

The award recognizes greener and more sustainable synthetic routes and their associated processes to Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) or intermediates, reaction conditions, and chemical or manufacturing process technologies.

The submission should highlight the green and sustainable chemistry accomplishments at meaningful scale and must detail their significance (e.g., reduction in process mass intensity, waste reduction, robustness, environmental, health, and safety impact reduction or elimination, reduction in the use of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, solvents, reagents, etc.). The innovations should be significant and ones that go beyond routine process development optimization. 

The 2024 award will be presented at the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. The recipient, or a member of the winning team, will be invited to share their technology in an oral presentation at this event. The recipient’s transportation, lodging, and registration fees for the conference are reimbursable up to $2,500 USD (additional funds available for international travel following ACS guidelines). The recipient or winning team will also receive a plaque recognizing the achievement and certificates will be given to each team member.

Eligibility

New accomplishments relative to the design principles of green chemistry at meaningful scale are eligible for this award. Nominations must detail the significance (i.e., in yield, waste reduction, robustness, environmental impact, reduction of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, etc.) of the chemistry or engineering.

The Peter J. Dunn Award recognizes the accomplishments of individuals—whether they be individual contributions or as part of team efforts. Therefore, the ACS GCIPR strongly encourages individuals to apply. However, please note that this is not a career achievement award, rather the focus is on a specific innovative technology developed by the nominee. Nominations may also include teams of up to ten people.

The goal is to recognize both pioneering industrial scientists, as well as the best of green chemistry innovations, to inspire all pharmaceutical scientists (or allied industrial partners) to ever greater sustainability.

Note: Previous winning submissions from the EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award are not eligible.

Deadline

December 1, 2023, by 5 p.m. EST

How to Apply

Please use our online application portal to submit your application.

A panel of industry peers will evaluate the applications and select a winner. Notifications will go out in early 2024.

Chemistry enhances lives across the globe and green chemistry is the path to enhanced sustainability. The ACS GCIPR looks forward to receiving your submission to be considered as the best at pharmaceutical green chemistry development.

Sponsor

ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable (ACS GCIPR)

History

The Peter J. Dunn Award was established in 2016 by the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable (ACS GCIPR) in honor of Peter J. Dunn of Pfizer. Dunn has been recognized for his leadership of the Pfizer Green Chemistry Program and his accomplishments in the greener total synthesis of sildenafil citrate.

Past Recipients

• 2023 - Michael Smith, Tichen Tan, Candice Joe, David George, Michael Dummeldinger, Harshkumar Patel, Richard Fox, Shane McKenna, Briston-Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, NJ, and collaborators Zara Seibel, Stephan Jenne, Codexis, Redwood City, CA.
  “Sustainable Manufacturing of BMS-986278 Leveraging an ERED/KRED Biocatalytic Cascade”
  Media: Nexus Blog, ACS Webinar
• 2023 - John McIntosh, Chihui An, Jeffrey C. Moore, Matthew S. Winston, Jennifer V. Obligacion, Nastaran Salehi Marzijarani, Zhijian Liu, Feng Peng, David J. Lamberto, and Xiaodong Bu, Merck, Rahway NJ.
  “Greener Manufacturing of STING agonist (MK-1454) featuring a Kinase-cGAS enzymatic cascade”
  Media: Nexus Blog, ACS Webinar
• 2022 - Karla Camacho Soto, Mike DiMaso, Jacob Forstater, Nadine Kuhl, Reed Larson, Chris Prier, and Ben Turnbull, Merck, Rahway, NJ. 
  "From Wood Pulp to a Candidate Medicine: Green Manufacturing Technologies Enable the Production of Investigational Leukemia Drug Nemtabrutinib from a Biorenewable Commodity Material"
  Media: Nexus Blog, ACS Webinar
• 2021 - Stephen Dalby, Francois Levesque, Cecilia Bottecchia & Jonathan McMullen
  Merck & Co., Inc.
  “Greener Manufacturing of Belzutifan (MK-6482) Featuring a Photo-Flow Bromination”
  Media: C&EN article, Nexus Blog
• 2020 - Dan Bailey, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
  “Beyond Organic Solvents: Synthesis of a 5-HT4 receptor agonist in water.”
  Media: ACS Webinar, C&EN article, Nexus Blog
• 2019 - B. Frank Gupton, Floyd D. Gottwald Jr. Chair in Pharmaceutical Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University
  “Increasing Access to Global Health Care through Process Intensification.”
  Media: C&EN Article, Nexus Blog
• 2017 - Bruce Lipshutz, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Sachin Handa, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Louisville
  “Development of Newly Engineered Catalysts for Sustainable Surfactant Chemistry in Water.”
  Media: C&EN Article, Nexus Blog
• 2016 - Peter J. Dunn, Global Head of Green Chemistry, Pfizer
  Media: Nexus Blog

Contact Information

Questions about the Peter J. Dunn Award should be directed to the ACS Green Chemistry Institute:
Email: gcipr@acs.org (preferred)
Phone: 202-872-6102