Class
| • | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | [X] |
Subdivision
| • | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | [X] |
| | 41 | Name: | Dr. Tobin Jay Marks | | | Institution: | Northwestern University | | | Year Elected: | 2022 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1944 | | | | | | |
Tobin Jay Marks is the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry, Professor of Material Science and Engineering, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Professor of Applied Physics at Northwestern University. He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971. He has spent most of his career at Northwestern, beginning as an Assistant Professor, then full Professor, and later, the Charles E. & Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry.
For five decades, Marks has been on the cutting edge of chemistry. Among his most ambitious work is the development of new organic photonics and olefin-polymerization techniques that opened the door to environmentally-friendly plastics. Marks has been "a true giant in the field" Stanford University chemistry professor Richard Zare told Chemical & Engineering News in 2016 when Marks was announced as the recipient of the Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society. Among Marks' many achievements are the creation of flexible electronic materials for use in solar cells and light-emitting diodes and developing classes of oxide thin films for use in energy efficient materials. The wide scope of his research has resulted in more than a thousand published papers and more than 230 patents. He has also mentored hundreds of students over his career.
Marks' major recognitions include the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Spanish Principe de Asturias Prize, the Materials Research Society Von Hippel Award, the Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences, and the Israel Harvey Prize. He is a member of the U.S., European, German, Indian, and Italian Academies of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the U.S. National Academy of Inventors. He is a Fellow of the U.K. Royal Society of Chemistry, the Materials Research Society, and the American Chemical Society. Marks was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2022. | |
| 42 | Name: | Dr. Jerrold Meinwald | | | Institution: | Cornell University | | | Year Elected: | 1987 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1927 | | | Death Date: | April 24, 2018 | | | | | | |
Jerrold Meinwald, Goldwin Smith Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Cornell University, died April 24, 2018, at the age of 91. He was educated at the University of Chicago (Ph.B. 1947, B.S. 1948) and at Harvard (M.A. 1950, Ph.D. 1952), where he worked with R.B. Woodward. He was a member of the group of scientists who founded the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi, and served as an ICIPE Research Director from 1970-77. He is a founding member of CIRCE (the Cornell Institute for Research in Chemical Ecology).
Dr. Meinwald's research covered a very broad range of topics, including molecular rearrangement mechanisms, the synthesis and reactions of highly strained ring systems, organic photochemistry, natural product structure and synthesis, anesthetic stereochemistry, and insect chemical ecology. We typically think of communication as a fairly straightforward phenomenon involving speech, gestures, and more recently, electronic devices. But the majority of creatures interact through different means: a dazzling array of chemical signals. This is how insects talk to each other, find food, mate, bind together in communities, even make war. But it's not only bugs that communicate through chemicals—all living organisms, from microorganisms to human beings, do the same. The study of how organisms communicate and interact with their environment is a specialized field called chemical ecology, bridging organic chemistry and biology. Jerrold Meinwald is universally recognized as its founding father, along with Tom Eisner (1929-2011), his longtime biological collaborator. In a career spanning more than half a century, Meinwald defined chemical ecology as a new science, showing how it can help us better understand the behavior of living creatures and leading to important advances in medicine, pharmacology, and agriculture.
Born in New York, Meinwald attended the University of Chicago and obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard, then settled in for a fellowship at Cornell University, where he has spent his entire career. At first, he was known as a creative organic chemist, studying highly strained small molecules, photochemistry, and analytic spectroscopic techniques. He then became intrigued by the chemical defenses of arthropods. Among his early discoveries were lipophilic compounds secreted by some insects that help toxins permeate an attacker's protective cuticle, and the fact that fireflies and some other insects secrete steroids that make them unattractive meals for predators. He investigated the underlying chemical mechanisms that enabled organisms to synthesize these defensive agents, leading to the realization that one species, perhaps a plant, can make a precursor substance later used by another organism, such as an insect—a relationship between two species manifested at a chemical level.
This work led to the forging of a unique collaboration with Eisner, who had been studying many of the same questions from a biological perspective and arrived at Cornell shortly after Meinwald had joined the faculty. They combined forces to elevate the study of chemical signaling into the new discipline of chemical ecology, with Meinwald probing the chemistry and Eisner investigating the biology. They studied and characterized an extensive variety of chemical signaling and defense mechanisms in insects, plants, birds, fish, and mammals. The interactions they explained, from snakes that derive protective steroids for their eggs and hatchlings from toads they consume, to moths that convert a certain alkaloid to attract females which is later passed on as a defensive chemical to their eggs, to fish that secrete substances literally giving them a bad taste to predators, demonstrate the amazing range of remarkable evolutionary adaptations on Earth. The Meinwald/Eisner partnership opened up brand new vistas in chemistry and biology that are only beginning to be fully explored.
But the work has done even more than give science a deeper insight into the beautiful interconnected web of life on our planet. Meinwald's work in isolating, characterizing, and synthesizing the structure of various compounds used in nature points the way for the development of substances for practical applications: drugs, agricultural chemicals, and other yet unimagined uses. He continues to demonstrate that the natural chemicals that living creatures use to communicate, survive, and thrive have potential and promise waiting to be tapped.
He had been a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Medical School, the Rockefeller University, and the University of California, San Diego. He was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (1969), the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1970) and the American Philosophical Society (1987), and held two J.S. Guggenheim Fellowships (1960-61, 1976-77). He served as a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (1983) and as a Fogarty Scholar-in-Residence at the NIH (1983-85). He was elected President of the International Society of Chemical Ecology in 1988. In 1989, he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. by the University of Göteborg. Dr. Meinwald served as a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (1990-91). He was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 1990 and the Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest in 1991. He served three terms as a National Sigma Xi Lecturer (1965, 1975, 1992-94). The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic awarded him the Heyrovsky Medal in 1996. He was a Senior Visiting Scholar at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2004) and was selected for the 2005 Roger Adams Award in Organic Chemistry by the American Chemical Society. He was awarded the 2013 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry by the Franklin Institute and won the 2014 National Medal of Science.
Music was Dr. Meinwald's chief recreational activity. He studied flute with Arthur Lora, James Pappoutsakis and Marcel Moyse and frequently combines chamber music performances on flute, recorder, or flauto traverso with visiting lectureships. | |
| 43 | Name: | Dr. Mario J. Molina | | | Institution: | University of California, San Diego | | | Year Elected: | 2007 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | Death Date: | October 7, 2020 | | | | | | |
Mario Molina Autobiography From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1995, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1996. Updated in 2005. I was born in Mexico City on March 19, 1943; my parents were Roberto Molina Pasquel and Leonor Henríquez de Molina. My father was a lawyer; he had a private practice, but he also taught at the National University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) ). In his later years, after I had left Mexico, he served as Mexican Ambassador to Ethiopia, Australia and the Philippines. I attended elementary school and high school in Mexico City. I was already fascinated by science before entering high school; I still remember my excitement when I first glanced at paramecia and amoebae through a rather primitive toy microscope. I then converted a bathroom, seldom used by the family, into a laboratory and spent hours playing with chemistry sets. With the help of an aunt, Esther Molina, who was a chemist, I continued with more challenging experiments along the lines of those carried out by freshman chemistry students in college. Keeping with our family tradition of sending their children abroad for a couple of years, and aware of my interest in chemistry, I was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland when I was 11 years old, on the assumption that German was an important language for a prospective chemist to learn. I remember I was thrilled to go to Europe, but then I was disappointed in that my European schoolmates had no more interest in science than my Mexican friends. I had already decided at that time to become a research chemist; earlier, I had seriously contemplated the possibility of pursuing a career in music - I used to play the violin in those days. In 1960, I enrolled in the chemical engineering program at UNAM, as this was then the closest way to become a physical chemist, taking math-oriented courses not available to chemistry majors. After finishing my undergraduate studies in Mexico, I decided to obtain a Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry. This was not an easy task; although my training in chemical engineering was good, it was weak in mathematics, physics, as well as in various areas of basic physical chemistry - subjects such as quantum mechanics were totally alien to me in those days. At first I went to Germany and enrolled at the University of Freiburg. After spending nearly two years doing research in kinetics of polymerizations, I realized that I wanted to have time to study various basic subjects in order to broaden my background and to explore other research areas. Thus, I decided to seek admission to a graduate program in the United States. While pondering my future plans, I spent several months in Paris, where I was able to study mathematics on my own and I also had a wonderful time discussing all sorts of topics, ranging from politics, philosophy, to the arts, etc., with many good friends. Subsequently, I returned to Mexico as an Assistant Professor at the UNAM and I set up the first graduate program in chemical engineering. Finally, in 1968 I left for the University of California at Berkeley to pursue my graduate studies in physical chemistry. During my first year at Berkeley, I took courses in physics and mathematics, in addition to the required courses in physical chemistry. I then joined the research group of Professor George C. Pimentel, with the goal of studying molecular dynamics using chemical lasers, which were discovered in his group a few years earlier. George Pimentel was also a pioneer in the development of matrix isolation techniques, which is widely used in the study of the molecular structure and bonding of transient species. He was an excellent teacher and a wonderful mentor; his warmth, enthusiasm, and encouragement provided me with inspiration to pursue important scientific questions. My graduate work involved the investigation of the distribution of internal energy in the products of chemical and photochemical reactions; chemical lasers were well suited as tools for such studies. At the beginning I had little experience with the experimental techniques required for my research, such as handling vacuum lines, infrared optics, electronic instrumentation, etc. I learned much of this from my colleague and friend Francisco Tablas, who was a postdoctoral fellow at that time. Eventually I became confident enough to generate original results on my own: my earliest achievement consisted of explaining some features in the laser signals - that at first sight appeared to be noise - as "relaxation oscillations," predictable from the fundamental equations of laser emission. My years at Berkeley have been some of the best of my life. I arrived there just after the era of the free-speech movement. I had the opportunity to explore many areas and to engage in exciting scientific research in an intellectually stimulating environment. It was also during this time that I had my first experience dealing with the impact of science and technology on society. I remember that I was dismayed by the fact that high-power chemical lasers were being developed elsewhere as weapons; I wanted to be involved with research that was useful to society, but not for potentially harmful purposes. After completing my Ph.D. degree in 1972, I stayed for another year at Berkeley to continue research on chemical dynamics. Then, in the fall of 1973, I joined the group of Professor F. Sherwood (Sherry) Rowland as a postdoctoral fellow, moving to Irvine, California. Sherry had pioneered research on "hot atom" chemistry, investigating chemical properties of atoms with excess translational energy and produced by radioactive processes. Sherry offered me a list of research options: the one project that intrigued me the most consisted of finding out the environmental fate of certain very inert industrial chemicals - the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) - which had been accumulating in the atmosphere and which at that time were thought to have no significant effects on the environment. This project offered me the opportunity to learn a new field --atmospheric chemistry-- about which I knew very little; trying to solve a challenging problem appeared to be an excellent way to plunge into a new research area. The CFCs are compounds similar to others that Sherry and I had investigated from the point of view of molecular dynamics; we were familiar with their chemical properties, but not with their atmospheric chemistry. Three months after I arrived at Irvine, Sherry and I developed the "CFC-ozone depletion theory." At first the research did not seem to be particularly interesting - I carried out a systematic search for processes that might destroy the CFCs in the lower atmosphere, but nothing appeared to affect them. We knew, however, that they would eventually drift to sufficiently high altitudes to be destroyed by solar radiation. The question was not only what destroys them, but more importantly, what the consequences are. We realized that the chlorine atoms produced by the decomposition of the CFCs would catalytically destroy ozone. We became fully aware of the seriousness of the problem when we compared the industrial amounts of CFCs to the amounts of nitrogen oxides which control ozone levels; the role of these catalysts of natural origin had been established a few years earlier by Paul Crutzen. We were alarmed at the possibility that the continued release of CFCs into the atmosphere would cause a significant depletion of the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer. Sherry and I decided to exchange information with the atmospheric sciences community: we went to Berkeley to confer with Professor Harold Johnston, whose work on the impact of the release of nitrogen oxides from the proposed supersonic transport (SST) aircraft on the stratospheric ozone layer was well known to us. Johnston informed us that months earlier Ralph Cicerone and Richard Stolarski had arrived at similar conclusions concerning the catalytic properties of chlorine atoms in the stratosphere, in connection with the release of hydrogen chloride either from volcanic eruptions or from the ammonium perchlorate fuel planned for the space shuttle. We published our findings in Nature, in a paper which appeared in the June 28, 1974 issue. The years following the publication of our paper were hectic, as we had decided to communicate the CFC - ozone issue not only to other scientists, but also to policy makers and to the news media; we realized this was the only way to insure that society would take some measures to alleviate the problem. To me, Sherry Rowland has always been a wonderful mentor and colleague. I cherish my years of association with him and my friendship with him and his wife, Joan. While he was on sabbatical leave in Vienna during the first six months of 1974, we communicated via mail and telephone. There were many exchanges of mail during this short period of time, which illustrated the frantic pace of our research at that time while we continued to refine our ozone depletion theory. Soon after, Sherry and I published several more articles on the CFC-ozone issue; we presented our results at scientific meetings and we also testified at legislative hearings on potential controls on CFCs emissions. In 1975, I was appointed as a member of the faculty at the University of California, Irvine. Although I continued to collaborate with Sherry, as an assistant professor I had to prove that I was capable of conducting original research on my own. I thus set up an independent program to investigate chemical and spectroscopic properties of compounds of atmospheric importance, focusing on those that are unstable and difficult to handle in the laboratory, such as hypochlorous acid, chlorine nitrite, chlorine nitrate, peroxynitric acid, etc. Although my years at Irvine were very productive, I missed not doing experiments myself because of the many responsibilities associated with a faculty position: teaching courses, supervising graduate students, meetings, etc. After spending seven years at Irvine as Assistant and then Associate Professor, I decided to move to a non-academic position. I joined the Molecular Physics and Chemistry Section at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1982. I had a smaller group - only a few postdoctoral fellows - but I also had the luxury of conducting experiments with my own hands, which I enjoyed very much. Indeed, I spent many hours in the laboratory in those years, conducting measurements and developing techniques for the study of newly emerging problems. Around 1985, after becoming aware of the discovery by Joseph Farman and his co-workers of the seasonal depletion of ozone over Antarctica, my research group at JPL investigated the peculiar chemistry which is promoted by polar stratospheric clouds, some of which consist of ice crystals. We were able to show that chlorine-activation reactions take place very efficiently in the presence of ice under polar stratospheric conditions; thus, we provided a laboratory simulation of the chemical effects of clouds over the Antarctic. Also, in order to understand the rapid catalytic gas phase reactions that were taking place over the South Pole, experiments were carried out in my group with chlorine peroxide, a new compound which had not been reported previously in the literature and which turned out to be important in providing the explanation for the rapid loss of ozone in the polar stratosphere. In 1989 I returned to academic life, moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I have continued with research on global atmospheric chemistry issues. Although I no longer spend much time in the laboratory, I very much enjoy working with my graduate and postdoctoral students, who provide me with invaluable intellectual stimulus. I have also benefited from teaching; as I try to explain my views to students with critical and open minds, I find myself continually being challenged to go back and rethink ideas. I now see teaching and research as complementary, mutually reinforcing activities. When I first chose the project to investigate the fate of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere, it was simply out of scientific curiosity. I did not consider at that time the environmental consequences of what Sherry and I had set out to study. I am heartened and humbled that I was able to do something that not only contributed to our understanding of atmospheric chemistry, but also had a profound impact on the global environment. One of the very rewarding aspects of my work has been the interaction with a superb group of colleagues and friends in the atmospheric sciences community. I truly value these friendships, many of which go back 20 years or more, and which I expect to continue for many more years to come. I feel that this Nobel Prize represents recognition for the excellent work that has been done by my colleagues and friends in the atmospheric chemistry community on the stratospheric ozone depletion issue.
Mario Molina was awarded the 2013 Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. | |
| 44 | Name: | Dr. Kyriacos C. Nicolaou | | | Institution: | Rice University | | | Year Elected: | 2011 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1946 | | | | | | |
K.C. Nicolaou was born in 1946 in Cyprus, where he grew up and went to school until the age of 18. In 1964, he emigrated to England where he spent two years learning English and preparing to enter the university. His advanced studies in chemistry were carried out at the University of London (B.Sc., 1969, Bedford College, First Class Honors; Ph.D. 1972, University College). In 1972, he crossed the Atlantic to the United States and completed postdoctoral appointments at Columbia University (1972-1973) and Harvard University (1973-1976) after which he joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, where he rose through the ranks to become the Rhodes-Thompson Professor of Chemistry. In 1989, he accepted joint appointments at the University of California, San Diego, where he was Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and The Scripps Research Institute, where he was the Chairman of the Department of Chemistry and the Darlene Shiley Chair in Chemistry and the Aline. W. and L. Skaggs Professorship in Chemical Biology. In July 2013 he moved to Rice University where he is Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and the BioScience Research Collaborative.
One of the world’s leading synthetic organic chemists, Dr. Nicolaou is considered a master of the art of total synthesis. His accomplishments include the synthesis of some of the most complex molecules of nature such as amphotericin B, calicheamicin, Taxol®, brevetoxins A and B, vancomycin, and thiostrepton. In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Dr. Nicolaou is well known for his educational reviews and books. Among his books, the most well-known are the Classics in Total Synthesis series (I, II, III, co-authored with his students Erik Sorensen, Scott Snyder and Jason Chen, respectively) and Molecules That Changed the World (co-authored with his research associate Tamsyn Montagnon). The latter is a delightful and informative coffee table book illustrating the impact of chemistry on society with colorful images and easy to understand language that serves to inspire the youth into the sciences and inform the public about the importance and virtues of science.
For his scientific work, Professor Nicolaou has received numerous awards and honors, including the Humboldt Foundation US Senior Scientist Prize (Germany, 1987), the William H. Nichols Medal, New York Section-American Chemical Society (1996), the Linus Pauling Medal, Oregon, Portland, Puget Sound Sections-American Chemical Society (1996), the Decoration of the Order of the Commander of Honor Medal (bestowed by the President of Greece, 1998), the Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest, Northeaster Section-American Chemical Society (1998), the Aristeio Bodossaki Prize (Greece, 2004), the A. C. Cope Award, American Chemical Society (2005), the August-Wilhelm-von-Hofmann-Denkmünze Award (Germany, 2008), the Chandler Medal, Columbia University (2008), the Science Award, Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus (2010), the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry (2011), and the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2016).
Nicolaou is a Member of the New York Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Foreign Member of the Academy of Athens (Greece), Honorary Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Member of the Royal Society, and holds 12 honorary degrees from universities around the world. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2011. | |
| 45 | Name: | Dr. Daniel G. Nocera | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 2021 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1957 | | | | | | |
Daniel G. Nocera is the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University. He moved to Harvard in 2013 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and was Director of the Solar Revolutions Project and Director of the MIT Solar Frontiers Center. Nocera is recognized for his discoveries in renewable energy, originating new paradigms that have defined the field of solar energy conversion and storage. Nocera created the field of proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) at a mechanistic level by making the first measurements that temporally resolved the movement of an electron coupled to a proton. On this experimental foundation, he provided the first theory of PCET. With PCET as a guiding framework, he invented the Artificial Leaf and the Bionic Leaf. The Artificial Leaf comprises Si coated with catalysts to capture the direct solar process of photosynthesis – the use of sunlight to split water to hydrogen and oxygen from neutral water, at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The Bionic Leaf comprises a bio-engineered organism interfaced with the catalysts of the Artificial Leaf to capture the dark process of photosynthesis – the combination of carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce biomass and liquid fuels. The integration of the light and dark processes of the Artificial Leaf and the Bionic Leaf, respectively, allowed Nocera to develop a complete artificial photosynthesis — sunlight + air + water to biomass and liquid fuels — that is ten times more efficient than natural photosynthesis. Extending this approach, Nocera has achieved a renewable and distributed Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen in air by coupling solar-based water splitting to a nitrogen and carbon fixing bioorganism to produce a living biofertilizer, resulting in increased crop yields and early harvests. These science discoveries set the stage for the large scale and distributed deployment of solar energy fuels and food production using only sunlight, air and any water source. With such simple natural inputs, such discovery is particularly useful to the poor, where large infrastructures for fuel and food production are not tenable. Complementing his interest in solar energy conversion, Nocera has designed layered antiferromagnets to explore exotic states arising from highly correlated spins, creating the spin 1/2 quantum spin liquid on a kagomé lattice, a long-sought prize in condensed matter physics. His group has also created nanocrystal sensors for the metabolic profiling of tumors, a technique used by clinicians to develop new cancer drug therapies. Afield from chemistry, Nocera invented the Molecular Tagging Velocimetry to make simultaneous, multipoint velocity measurements of highly three-dimensional turbulent flows. This fluid physics technique has been employed by the engineering community to solve long-standing and important problems that had previously escaped characterization. Nocera founded Sun Catalytix, a company committed to developing energy storage technologies for the wide-spread implementation of renewable energy; the coordination chemistry flow battery technology invented by Sun Catalytix is now being commercialized by Lockheed Martin. A second company founded by Nocera, Kula Bio, is focused on the development of renewable and distributed crop production and land restoration; the technology also provides a low-cost curve for significant carbon sequestration. Nocera has been awarded the Leigh Ann Conn Prize for Renewable Energy, Eni Prize, Burghausen Prize, and the United Nation’s Science and Technology Award for his discoveries in renewable energy. On this topic, he has also received the Inorganic Chemistry, Harrison Howe, Mack, Remsen and Kosolapoff Awards from the American Chemical Society. He has received honorary degrees from Harvard University, Michigan State University and the University of Crete. In addition to membership in the American Philosophical Society, he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Indian Academy of Sciences. | |
| 46 | Name: | Dr. John H. Northrop | | | Year Elected: | 1938 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1891 | | | Death Date: | 5/27/87 | | | | |
| 47 | Name: | Dr. George A. Olah | | | Institution: | University of Southern California | | | Year Elected: | 2001 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1927 | | | Death Date: | March 8, 2017 | | | | | | |
George Olah was born (1927) and educated in Budapest, Hungary. He moved to America in 1957. In 1977 he became director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and Distinguished Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Southern California. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and a Foreign or Honorary Member of other Academies such as the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Canada, the Italian National Academy Lincei, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He received honorary doctoral degrees from several universities, including the University of Durham (England), the University of Munich, the Technical University of Budapest, the University of Crete, the University of Szeged and Veszprem (Hungary), the University of Southern California, Case Western Reserve University, New York State University, and the University of Montpellier (France). His contributions to superacid/carbocation chemistry and electrophilic chemistry of saturated hydrocarbons were singularly recognized with the 1994 undivided Nobel Prize in chemistry. Apart from the Nobel Prize, Olah's work was recognized with many honors and awards. He was the winner of the American Chemical Society's Award for Petroleum Chemistry, Creativity in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, the Roger Adams Medal, the Arthur C. Cope Award, and the Priestley Medal. He had published some 1,250 scientific papers, held 120 patents and authored or co-authored 20 books. George Olah died March 8, 2017, at age 89 in Beverly Hills, California. | |
| 48 | Name: | Dr. Linus C. Pauling | | | Institution: | Linus Pauling Institute | | | Year Elected: | 1936 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1901 | | | Death Date: | 8/19/94 | | | | |
| 49 | Name: | Dr. George C. Pimentel | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley | | | Year Elected: | 1985 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1922 | | | Death Date: | 6/18/89 | | | | |
| 50 | Name: | Dr. Kenneth S. Pitzer | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley | | | Year Elected: | 1954 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1914 | | | Death Date: | 12/26/97 | | | | |
| 51 | Name: | Dr. Stuart Alan Rice | | | Institution: | University of Chicago | | | Year Elected: | 1986 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1932 | | | | | | |
Stuart A. Rice is the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, in the Department of Chemistry and the James Franck Institute of the University of Chicago. He is currently Science Advisor to the Director of Argonne National Laboratory. Born in New York City in 1932, he received a B.S. degree from Brooklyn College in 1952 and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University in, respectively, 1954 and 1955. His graduate research was carried out with Paul Doty. He was elected to the Society of Fellows, Harvard University, in 1955. After two years as a Junior Fellow he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, where he remained until retirement in 2004. He was selected to be the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor in 1977. He has carried out theoretical and experimental research in diverse areas of physical chemistry. He and his coworkers have published more than 650 papers dealing with polyelectrolyte solutions, helix-coil transitions in polypeptides and DNA, the transport of mass, energy and charge in liquids, diffusion in crystals, the equilibrium properties of dense fluids, the fluid-solid transition, exciton-exciton interactions in molecular crystals and polymers, exciton and charge carrier band structures of molecular crystals and liquids, structure of the liquid metal-vapor interface, pseudopotential theory of atomic and molecular electronic structure, radiationless transitions, non-statistical behavior in unimolecular reactions, structure and properties of water, quantum and classical deterministic chaos, collision induced mode specific state-to-state vibrational energy transfer, shaped laser field active control of molecular dynamics, structure of Langmuir monolayers, structure, phase transitions and diffusive motion in quasi-one and quasi-two-dimensional colloid assemblies, and miscellaneous other subjects. He has also co-authored four books: Polyelectrolyte Solutions (with Mitsuru Nagasawa); The Statistical Mechanics of Simple Liquids (with Peter Gray); Optical Control of Molecular Dynamics (with Meishan Zhao) and Physical Chemistry (with R. Steven Berry and John Ross). Amongst other public service activities, he has served on numerous advisory boards for Federal Agencies, was a member of the National Science Board from 1980-86 and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for about twenty years. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Irish Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received four medals from the American Chemical Society (the Award in Pure Chemistry, the Baekland Award, the Debye Award, and the Hildebrand Award), as well as the Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry, the Willis Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics, the Centennial Medal of Harvard University and the National Medal of Science. | |
| 52 | Name: | Dr. John D. Roberts | | | Institution: | California Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 1974 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1918 | | | Death Date: | October 29, 2016 | | | | | | |
An organic chemist of great distinction, John D. Roberts was Institute Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology at the time of his death October 29, 2016, at age 98. He had served on the faculty since 1953. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1944, he taught at Harvard University (1945-46) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1946-53). The recipient of the American Chemical Society's Pure Science Award (1954) and the Roger Adams Award in organic chemistry (1967), Dr. Roberts was well known for his original discoveries regarding organic compounds, including structure and uses of the Grignard reagent, and his pioneering use of techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance. He served as editor-in-chief of Organic Syntheses (vol. 41) and had written numerous articles in scientific journals and books including Molecular Orbital Calculations (1961), Modern Organic Chemistry (1967) and (with R. Stewart and M.C. Caserio) Organic Chemistry Methane to Macromolecules (1971). He is the recipient of the American Chemical Society's top prize, the Priestley Medal in 1987, the National Medal of Science in 1990, and in 2013 American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal. | |
| 53 | Name: | Dr. Frank Sherwood Rowland | | | Institution: | University of California, Irvine | | | Year Elected: | 1995 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1927 | | | Death Date: | March 10, 2012 | | | | | | |
Frank Sherwood Rowland was a Nobel laureate and Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry and Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. His research in atmospheric chemistry and chemical kinetics has had an enormous impact on scientific, industrial and general activity on a global scale. Born in Ohio, Dr. Rowland received his B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University (1948), then earned his M.S. in 1951 and his Ph.D. in 1952, both from the University of Chicago. He held academic posts at Princeton University (1952-56) and at the University of Kansas (1956-64) before becoming a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, in 1964. At Irvine in the early 1970s he began working with Mario Molina, with whom he would discover the effects of chlorofluorocarbon gases on the ozone layer of the stratosphere. The pair were awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery. Dr. Rowland has won numerous other awards for his work, including the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1983), the Japan Prize (1989), the Peter Debye Award (1993) and the Roger Revelle Medal (1994). He was elected to the membership of the National Academy of Sciences in 1978, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977, and the Royal Society (as a foreign member) in 2004. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1995. Dr. Rowland died on March 10, 2012, at home in Corona del Mar, California, at the age of 84. | |
| 54 | Name: | Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley | | | Year Elected: | 1952 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1912 | | | Death Date: | 2/25/99 | | | | |
| 55 | Name: | Dr. Howard E. Simmons | | | Institution: | DuPont | | | Year Elected: | 1994 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1929 | | | Death Date: | 4/26/97 | | | | |
| 56 | Name: | Dr. Charles P. Smyth | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 1932 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1895 | | | Death Date: | 3/18/90 | | | | |
| 57 | Name: | Dr. Gilbert Stork | | | Institution: | Columbia University | | | Year Elected: | 1995 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1921 | | | Death Date: | October 21, 2017 | | | | | | |
Gilbert Stork received a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in 1945. He was an assistant professor at Harvard University until 1953, when he moved to Columbia University for a career spanning four decades. He became Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry Emeritus in 1992, but continued to work up to his death on October 21, 2017, at age 95. Gilbert Stork was a world leader in the art and science of synthetic organic chemistry. Not only had he achieved trail-blazing syntheses of complex natural products of biochemical interest, such as cantharidin, lupeol, prostaglandins, steroids, reserpine and calictriol, but at the same time, he had developed many synthetic methodologies of wide applicability. Of special note is the inspiration and training he provided in his laboratory for students and postdoctoral fellows who went on to important academic and industrial positions worldwide. Dr. Stork received many honors for his work, including the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry (1957), Baekeland Medal (1961), Edward Curtis Franklin Memorial Award from Stanford (1966), American Chemical Society Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (1967), Roussel Prize in Steroid Chemistry (1978), Nichols Medal (1980), Arthur C. Cope Award (1980), National Medal of Science (1982), Edgar Fahs Smith Award (1982), Willard Gibbs Medal (1982), Linus Pauling Award (1983), Roger Adams Award in Organic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (1991), the Welch Prize in Chemistry (1993), the Wolf Prize (1996), the Philadelphia Organic Chemists' Club Award (1998), the First Barton gold medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2002), the Ryoji Noyori Prize (2004) and the Herbert Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods (2005). He wss an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Académie des Sciences (France), the Royal Society of Chemistry, (U.K.), and the Royal Society (U.K.). He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1995. | |
| 58 | Name: | Dr. JoAnne Stubbe | | | Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2004 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1946 | | | | | | |
JoAnne Stubbe is one of the world's leading enzymologists. Her specific interest is in how reactive chemical intermediates such as free radicals are exploited and controlled in biochemical processes to effect difficult chemical transformations. With experiments of sparkling originality, she showed that a key enzyme, ribonucleotide reductase, that is involved in the synthesis of deoxynucleotides, initiates its chemistry through an unusual diferrictyrosyl radical that abstracts a key hydrogen from the sugar nucleus. Surprisingly, an important chemotherapeutic agent, bleomycin, was shown by Dr. Stubbe to owe its antitumor activity to a free radical mechanism that neatly explains its chemical and sequence specificity. Currently Novartis Professor of Chemistry and Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Stubbe has previously held faculty positions at Williams College (1972-77), Yale University Medical School (1977-80) and the University of Wisconsin (1980-87). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (1971). The recipient of honors including the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry (1986), the Alfred Bader Award in Bioorganic & Bioinorganic Chemistry (1997), the National Medal of Science (2009), and the Franklin Institute's Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science (2009). Dr. Stubbe was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1991 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. | |
| 59 | Name: | Dr. Henry Taube | | | Institution: | Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 1981 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1915 | | | Death Date: | November 16, 2005 | | | | |
| 60 | Name: | Dr. Christopher Walsh | | | Institution: | Harvard Medical School | | | Year Elected: | 2003 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1944 | | | Death Date: | January 10, 2023 | | | | | | |
Christopher Walsh is a great enzymologist, a worldwide leader in studies of the mechanisms of enzymatic catalysis, with an emphasis on enzymes that are the targets of antibiotics. The Hamilton Kuhn Professor at Harvard University Medical School, he is also the author of major monographs in his field, including the classic "Enzymatic Reaction Mechanisms". Dr. Walsh's exceptionally wide-ranging oeuvre includes the dissection of enzymes that mediate the synthesis of antibiotics; the resistance to antibiotics; cell wall biosynthesis; detoxification of mercury-containing compounds; methanogenesis; and other processes. His work has also encompassed the design of mechanism-based inhibitors of medically important enzymes, the enzymatic synthesis of natural products such as antibiotic rifamycin and antitumor agent epothilone, and the understanding of the molecular basis of resistance to vancomycin, the antibiotic of last resort. In 2014 he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry from the Franklin Institute. | |
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