AWARDS
1988-89 ACS Division Awards John M. Bremner, Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and professor of agronomy and biochemistry, Iowa State University, is the winner of the 1988 Award for Advancement of Application of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The award is sponsored by International Flavors & Fragrances, and administered by the ACS Division of Agricultural & Food Chemistry. Bremner's contributions to agricultural chemistry span some 40 years. He has been a pioneer in many areas of analytical methodology research on soil and fertilizer problems and in studies of environmental problems related to agriculture. He also has contributed to agricultural research related to the potential threat
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of fertilizer-derived N2O to the stratospheric ozone layer. Bremner is the author or coauthor of more than 250 publications, including 25 chapters in various scientific monographs. Allen J. Bard, who holds the Hacke r m a n / W e l s h Regents Chair in Chemistry, University of Texas, Austin, has been named the first recipient of the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry's Award in Electrochemistry. The award is sponsored by the Electrochemical Instruments Division of EG&G Princeton Applied Research, and was established to foster innovation in the conceptualization, development, and use of electrochemistry to further the science of chemical analysis. Bard is being honored for his contributions to electrochemistry in general and to electroanalytical chemistry in particular. Most recently, he is credited with the developm e n t of t u n n e l i n g microscopic methods for the study of electrode surfaces. Velmer A. Fassel, professor of chemistry emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Science and Humanities, Iowa State University, has been selected the 1988 winner of the Analytical Chemistry Division's Award in Spectrochemical Analysis. The award is sponsored by Perkin-Elmer Corp., and was established to foster innovation in the conceptualization, development, and use of spectrochemical analysis. Fassel is being cited for his pioneering investigations of the theory and
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practice of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. He has also made important contributions to the fields of atomic emission spectroscopy and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Milos V. Novotny, Rudy Professor of Chemistry, Indiana University, is the recipient of the Analytical Chemistry Division's 1988 Award in Chemical Instrumentation. Sponsored by Dow Chemical Co., the award was established to foster innovation in the conceptualization, development, and use of instrumentation to further the science of chemical analysis. Novotny has made key contributions to chromatography, and designed the gas chromatographic column that was sent to Mars on the Viking Lander. Recently, he has been investigating capillary electrophoresis and ultrahigh sensitivity detection methods for separation and detection of biological species such as individual cells and fluorescence-labeled biomolecules at the femtogram level. Robert H. Abeles, Aron and Imre Tauber Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Brandeis University, is the winner of the 1988 Repligen Award in the Chemistry of Biological Processes. Presented annually by the ACS Division of Biological Chemistry, the award recognizes outstanding contributions to the understanding of biological processes, with emphasis on structure, function, and mechanism. During the past four years, Abeles has been conducting research on inhibitors for elastase, an enzyme that has been implicated in emphysema, arthritis, cancer, and injury-related tissue damage. His work may lead to the development of drugs to treat these diseases. Bengt Rânby, professor emeritus, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, has won the 1988 Anselme Payen Award of the ACS Cellulose, Paper & Textile Division.
He began his research career in cellulose with his Ph.D. dissertation, 'Tine Structure and Reactions of Native Cellulose/' and has contributed to recent developments in graft polymerization on starch and on cellulose. In 1955, he came to the U.S. as research and development project manager for American Viscose Corp., and worked on ways to save rayon from the onslaught of synthetic fibers. From 1961 to 1986, as head of the department of polymer technology, Royal Institute of Technology, his research concentrated on the photochemistry of polymers and of polymerization. The ACS Division of Chemical Health & Safety has awarded its 1988 Chemical Health and Safety Award to Leslie Bretherick. The awardee is a safety consultant who formerly worked for British Petroleum as a senior project leader at its Sunbury (U.K.) Research Centre. A worldwide lecturer on chemical safety, Bretherick is editor of Hazards in the Chemical Laboratory, published periodically by the Royal Society of Chemistry. His best-known book is "Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards/' now in its third edition. Also honored by the division is Don Hedberg, president of Lab Safety, Janesville, Wis., who has been selected to receive the 1988 Tillsmann-Skolnik Award. This award is given annually to a member of the ACS Division of Chemical Health & Safety who has provided outstanding service through the years. Hedberg has served the division since its inception. He has been chairman of the membership committee, organizer of the division's first directory, and a councilor. At present, he is on the advisory board of CHAS Notes, the division's newsletter. Two members of the scientific information community will share the ACS Division of Chemical Information's 1989 Herman Skolnik Award: Michael F. Lynch, University of Sheffield, U.K., and Stuart A. Marson, Maxwell Communications Corp., Berkeley, Calif. Lynch, professor of information studies, is being recognized for the more than two decades of pioneering research in the development of methods for the
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storage, manipulation, and retrieval of chemical structures and reactions, as well as related bibliographic information. The award is also acknowledging Marson's development of innovative, user-friendly software, which, over the past 10 years, has allowed bench chemists to more productively use chemical information as a daily resource. Marson is vice president of scientific innovations for Maxwell, and cofounder of Molecular Design Ltd. Harry J. Emeléus, professor emeritus, Cambridge University, U.K., was honored at the Toronto congress in June with the Division of Fluorine Chemistry's 1988 Award for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry, sponsored by PCR Inc. Emeléus, the first person so honored since the award has become international, was recognized, in the words of his nominator, as "the greatest living fluorine chemist." His contributions to fluorine chemical research include opening up the virtually unexplored field of perfluoroorganometallic chemistry via the synthesis of a key substance, trifluoroiodomethane; self-ionization studies of the pure liquids BrF3 and IF5 to form solvo acids and solvo bases; and preparation of a wide variety of mercurials that were used as precursors to a large variety of novel compounds. He is the author of "Advances in Inorganic Chemistry and Radiochemistry," and is one of the founding editors of the Journal of Fluorine Chemistry. The ACS Division of the History of Chemistry has awarded the 1988 Dexter Chemical Corp. Award in the History of Chemistry to Lutz F. Haber, retired reader in economics, University of Surrey, U.K. The awardee was born in Berlin and ed-
ucated in Germany, Switzerland, and England. He received degrees in economics from both the London School of Economics and the University of London. His career as an economist has included employment in academia as well as in industry and government. His contributions to the history of chemistry are based on three books: "The Chemical Industry During the 19th Century"; "The Chemical Industry: 1900-1930"; and "The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World War." Maurice Morton, regents professor emeritus of polymer chemistry, University of Akron, is the winner of the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry's 1988 P. J. Flory Polymer Education Award. The division established the award in 1982 to recognize, encourage, and stimulate outstanding achievements in polymer education. Morton is the fourth educator to receive this biennial award, which is sponsored by Procter & Gamble Co. In 1956, Morton founded and became the first director of the Institute of Rubber Research, later named the Institute of Polymer Science. The same year, he established the U.S.'s first formal doctoral program in polymer chemistry, which was the University of Akron's first doctoral program. In 1967, he was appointed head of the new department of polymer science. During the next 11 years, he built the department from four courses I taught by two faculty members to 15 graduate courses taught by 12 faculty members. Students and staff members numbered more than 80, making the graduate program in polymer science at UA the most comprehensive one in the U.S. Zeno W. Wicks Jr., professor emeritus and former chairman of the polymers and coatings d e p a r t m e n t , North Dakota State University, is the recipient of the 1988 Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings from the ACS Division of Polymeric MateriI als: Science & Engineering. The award, established to recognize outstanding contributions in coatings science, technology, and engineering, is being given to Wicks in acknowledgment of his achievements Continued on page 39 September 19, 1988 C&EN
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Awards
Letters
Continued from page 29 in a variety of areas, i n c l u d i n g r h e ology of o l i g o m e r solutions for h i g h solids coatings, n e w a p p r o a c h e s to c r o s s l i n k i n g , u l t r a v i o l e t c u r i n g sys tems, a n d water-soluble coatings. H e is a c o n s u l t i n g e d i t o r for t h e inter n a t i o n a l r e v i e w j o u r n a l Progress in Organic Coatings.
Continued from page 3 that emphasize problem solving, esti mation, statistics, and the use of comput ers as working tools. Together, these baseline mathematics and science cur ricula will set the stage for much more substantive courses in college. It is critical to the success of such ef forts that state, local, and university sys tems—as well as the science communi ty—understand the importance of this decision. There is a pressing need for baseline science and mathematics cur ricula for all students, together with the implicit investment in materials and teacher training. Science and technology are too im portant to be understood only by scien tists. George W. Tressel Director, Division of Materials Development, Research & Informal Science Education
J o h n G. S o m m e r , s e c t i o n h e a d , G e n C o r p ' s R e s e a r c h C e n t e r , Fairl a w n , O h i o , is t h e w i n n e r of t h e 1988 M e l v i n M o o n e y D i s t i n g u i s h e d T e c h n o l o g y A w a r d from t h e ACS R u b b e r Division. T h e a w a r d , s p o n s o r e d b y U n i r o y a l C h e m i c a l Co., honors Rubber Division members a n d affiliate m e m b e r s w h o h a v e ex h i b i t e d exceptional technical com p e t e n c e by m a k i n g significant a n d r e p e a t e d c o n t r i b u t i o n s to r u b b e r t e c h n o l o g y . S o m m e r is b e i n g rec o g n i z e d for c o n t r i b u t i o n s r a n g i n g from aerospace to i n d u s t r i a l r u b b e r c o m p o u n d s to fundamental research. H e h o l d s 16 U.S. p a t e n t s , a n d h a s p u b l i s h e d 25 p a p e r s , i n c l u d i n g five book c h a p t e r s . D
Special recognition t o . . . Isabella L. Karle, senior scientist for structural chemistry, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., is the winner of the Gregori Aminoff Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. She is being honored for her "eminent crystallographic studies of complicated natural products/' Karle, who with her husband established the oretical principles and experimental pro cedures for molecular structure analy sis using electron and x-ray diffraction techniques, is the third American to win this award. Her present work in cludes examination of peptide toxins, antitoxins, and endogenous enkepha lin, one of the body's natural analgesics. Douglas A. Keszler, assistant professor of chemistry, Oregon State University, is the 1988 winner of the Exxon SolidState Fellowship in Solid-State Chemis try. The award is sponsored by the cor porate research laboratories of Exxon Research & Engineering Co., and ad ministered by the ACS Division of In organic Chemistry through its SolidState Chemistry Subdivision. Keszler's research interests are in new borates and fluorides for application in solidstate lasers, optical materials, and crys tallographic studies of quasicrystals. Π
SIR: I would like to comment on Frank Westheimer's remarks on "Education of the Next Generation of Nonscientists." Although learning in the various fields of science is vertical, I do not believe that lack of understanding of this point is the real problem.
The Japanese do not attain superior quality just by having more engineers on the factory floor solving problems. The improvement is done by all work ers. Even so, Japanese-owned American companies produce products with high er quality levels than their Japanese counterparts. To the Japanese, high quality means developing and produc ing products that the customers want to buy. They pay great attention to the voice of the customer besides continual ly improving every system and product in the organization. I believe that most universities and colleges do not understand that they have customers. Potential students and their parents are customers as are em ployers of their graduates. The chemis try department has several sets of cus tomers: students who will become chemists, other departments whose stu dents need to know some chemistry, and all other departments. As custom ers, do they all need the same product from the chemistry department? I think not. The use of computers is not an aspect of science. Computers are a product of science as are automobiles, television sets, and microwave ovens. It is not nec-
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