| 1 | Name: | Dr. Stephen J. Lippard | |
| Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | ||
| Year Elected: | 2016 | ||
| Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1940 | ||
Stephen J. Lippard is the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and studied at Haverford College (B.A. in Chemistry) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry). After a postdoctoral year at MIT during 1965-66, he joined the faculty of Columbia University where he served until moving to MIT in 1983. His research activities span the fields of inorganic chemistry, biological chemistry, and neurochemistry. Included are studies to understand and improve platinum anticancer drugs, the synthesis of dimetallic complexes as models for non-heme iron metalloenzymes, structural and mechanistic investigations of methane monooxygenase and related bacterial multicomponent monooxygenases, and inorganic neurotransmitters, especially nitric oxide and zinc. He has published 900 papers on these and other topics and has co-authored a popular textbook with Jeremy Berg entitled "Principles of Bioinorganic Chemistry." He supervised the Ph. D. thesis research of 115 graduate students and more than that number of postdoctoral associates, many of whom hold significant positions in academic, industrial, or government institutions or in the medical or legal professions. His honors include the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry, National Medal of Science, the Priestley Medal (highest award bestowed by the American Chemical Society), the Centenary Medal awarded by the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK, the Pauling Medal, the James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award from MIT, awarded to one member of the faculty each year, the F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research, Luigi Sacconi Medal from the Italian Chemical Society, co-recipient of the first Christopher J. Fredrickson Prize for Research in the Neurobiology of Zinc, ACS Ronald Breslow Award for Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry, and election to the U. S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Irish Academy, Italian Chemical Society, and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He holds several honorary degrees. His research on platinum complexes led to the co-founding of Blend Therapeutics in 2011. Based in Watertown, Massachusetts, Blend (now Placon Therapeutics) has recently had an IND approved by the FDA to take a new platinum compound into a Phase I clinical trial for cancer treatment. | |||