American Chemical Society comment available Oct. 8 on 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2014 — To assist with coverage of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, will issue a statement from ACS President Thomas J. Barton, Ph.D., shortly after the official announcement in Stockholm is made on Oct. 8. Barton will also be available for interviews immediately following the chemistry prize announcement.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, plans to make the announcement at about 5:45 a.m. United States Eastern Time on Oct. 8. Barton will be available for telephone interviews beginning at 6 a.m. Journalists are encouraged to schedule an interview in advance by contacting the ACS Office of Public Affairs (using the contact information above) by 5 p.m. on Oct. 6. Scheduling of interviews will be first come, first served.

Many past winners of the chemistry prize were ACS members and authors of research papers published in ACS’ suite of more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Thomas J. Barton, Ph.D., is the 2014 president of the American Chemical Society. He is a distinguished professor emeritus of Iowa State University, where he taught and held multiple leadership roles during his 45 years there until retiring in 2012. Overlapping with his tenure at Iowa State, he served as director of both the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and the university’s Institute of Physical Research & Technology. He was the recipient of the ACS’ 1995 Midwest Award and has served on the editorial board of ACS’ journal Organometallics. Barton has been an ACS member since 1962, the same year he earned his B.S. in chemistry from Lamar University in Texas. He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Florida.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 161,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.