AWARDS
ACS 1990 Award Winners Following are vignettes of the second nine recipients of awards administered by ACS. They will receive their awards during the April 1990 199th ACS National Meeting in Boston, with the exception of the Cope Medalist and Cope Scholars, who will receive their awards at the 200th ACS National Meeting in Washington, D.C., during the Cope Symposium. The awards in Boston will be presented at a banquet on Tuesday, April 24,1990. Vignettes of the remaining awardees will appear in successive October issues ofC&EN.
ACS Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology sponsored by Air Products & Chemicals Inc. At the forefront of environmental chemistry is award winner DAVID M. GOLDEN, director of the chemistry laboratory and Department of Chemical Kinetics at SRI International. Four areas of research, in particular, have placed him in this prominent position. Golden is responsible for the measurements of many bond dissociation energies that form a basis for understanding environmental chemical activity. Decomposition and combustion kinetics—relating to the ways in which materials are burned—is another area of the awardee's research. He has measured rate constants of myriad d e c o m p o s i t i o n , radicalmolecule, and radical-radical reactions over a wide temperature range. In the area of atmospheric chemistry, Golden developed the VLP/S technique to examine surface reactions of atmospheric importance, such as measuring the first sticking coefficients for several molecules and radicals on sulfuric acid. This technique was expanded to encompass low temperatures and was used to show that reactions on ice sur-
faces, postulated as important in Antarctic stratospheric chemistry, were indeed plausible. He also demonstrated that carbonaceous atmospheric particulates may catalyze the hydrolysis of N2O5, thus playing a role in ozone destruction. Fourth is the area of applied theory. Golden was among the first to lay out a systematic approach to the incorporation of rate data into atmospheric and combustion models in a form consistent with theory. As an active participant in the National Aeronautics & Space Administration's panel for rate data evaluation, which produces tables of evaluated rate and photochemical parameters for use in modeling the stratosphere, Golden was responsible for suggesting the analytical format for pressure-dependent rate constants. Golden graduated from Cornell University in 1956 with a B.A. degree, and received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1961. Among other honors he has received are the Newcomb Cleveland Award from the American Association of Science in 1989 and the Hoyt C. Hottel Lectureship in MIT's department of chemical engineering, also in 1989. He has over 150 publications, and he is editor of the International Journal of Chemical Kinetics.
ACS Award in Petroleum Chemistry sponsored by Amoco Foundation ROBERT K. GRASSELLI, research scientist, Mobil Research & Development Corp., is a preeminent figure in the field of catalysis. Formerly a science fellow at Standard Oil (Ohio), now B. P. America, he played a major role in the discovery, development, and continued advancement of the Sohio one-step acrylonitrile process starting from propyl-
ene, ammonia, and air. The process is licensed worldwide and produces some 8 billion lb of acrylonitrile a year. Grasselli began his scientific education at the Technical University in Graz, Austria. He received a B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1952, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Case Western Reserve University in 1955 and 1959, respectively. He joined Sohio in 1952, where he rose to the rank of science fellow, the company's highest technical position. He was director of catalysis and solid-state science there through 1985. Before joining Mobil, he was director of the Office of Navy Research's chemistry division from 1986 to 1989. Grasselli's major contribution to the one-step acrylonitrile process was made through molecular-level mechanistic studies of the reaction pathways and intricate elucidation of the elemental and structural aspects of the catalysts employed. This led to five generations of sophisticated and ever more efficient catalysts now commercially in use in some 20 countries. His other noteworthy contributions are the methacrolein, acrylic acid, and niacin processes; MTBE synthesis; linear dimerization of acrylonitrile; oxidative carbonylation of saturated aldehydes, acids, esters, and nitriles; oxidative coupling of methane; propane ammoxidation; metallic glasses as electrocatalysts for oxygen and chlorine anodes; hydrogen storage; photocatalytic processes; and optical devices. Current interests include selective paraffin activation, structure-sensitive oxidations, multifunctional catalysis, controlled sequencing of catalytically active sites, fundamental and exploratory solid-state science and catalysis, microcrystalline materials, and superconductivity. The awardee holds 145 U.S. patents and numerous foreign patents, which include those for ammoxidation. Besides authoring or coauthoring 70 scientific papers, he is ediSeptember 25, 1989 C&EN
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ACS Award for Creative Invention sponsored by Corporation Associates
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tor of "Solid-State Chemistry in Catalysis," a 1985 ACS Symposium Series. In 1984 he received the ACS E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. In 1988 he was inducted into the National Hall of Fame for Engineering, Science, and Technology.
Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry HARRY B. GRAY, Arnold O. Beckman professor of chemistry and director of the Beckman Institute at California Institute of Technology, "ranks as possibly the world's leading bioinorganic chemist," says a colleague. "His accomplishments warrant his being chosen as the first bioinorganic recipient of the award." In the early 1970s, the electronic structures of binuclear and polynuclear protein iron-oxo units were elucidated by Gray's spectroscopic and magnetic studies. In 1974, Gray carried out metal replacement experiments on blue copper proteins. His subsequent work on the electronic structures and spectroscopic properties of native and cobaltsubstituted copper proteins led to a clear understanding of the relationship between active-site structure a n d biological electron-transfer reactivity. A major theme of Gray's research has been the electron-transfer chemistry of metalloproteins. In work in which polypeptide chains are chemically modified with redox-active rut h e n i u m complexes, t h e a w a r d winner opened an entirely new area in metallobiochemistry. In experi76
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ments on ruthenium-modified myoglobins and cytochromes, he showed that electrons can be transferred over large molecular distances at biologically relevant rates in proteins. In related work, he elucidated the role of distance and intervening medium in controlling longrange electron transfer in proteins. Currently, Gray is studying the role of electronic coupling in biological systems over a long-range pathway (the intervening medium) by comb i n e d site-directed mutagenesis r u t h e n i u m - m o d i f i c a t i o n experiments on yeast cytochromes. The award winner has published 15 books and 450 scientific articles. He has given over 100 invited lectures and received numerous awards including the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (1970), ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry (1978), ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry (1984), Harrison Howe Award (1972), Ira Remsen Award (1979), Tolman Medal (1979), Edgar Fahs Smith Award (1984), Pauling Medal (1986), and California Scientist of the Year (1988). He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971 and in 1986 he received the National Medal of Science. Gray received a B.S. degree from Western Kentucky University (1957) and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University (1960). He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen before joining Columbia University, where he became a full professor in 1965. He moved to Caltech in 1966. He has received honorary doctorates from Northwestern, the University of Rochester, and the University of Chicago.
G F. (MIKE) HAMMER, a longtime Du Pont employee, invented the first commercially practical permanent plasticizer for making rigid polyvinyl chloride into limp vinyl materials, which remain limp for the lifetime of the vinyl resin. These plasticizers are marketed worldwide and have found use in vinyl products in car instrument panels, in infusion bags and tubing (conventional plasticizers can leach into the bloodstream), and in athletic footwear (conventional plasticizers can cause slippage on hardwood floors). Hammer also discovered the first rubbery toughener for commercial phenolic molding compounds. The rubber material, which contains epoxy groups, is dispersed into tiny particles in the prepolymer matrix. When the phenolic resin is molded and cured, the surfaces of the rubber particles are chemically bound to the phenolic resin. This approach provides the best possible structure for toughening the phenolic resin. In graft copolymers, Hammer took a novel approach to grafting. A copolymer of ethylene is synthesized using a smaller amount of a monomer containing a reactive site such as maleic anhydride, which makes a trunk copolymer of known composition. Next, oligomers with only one reactive end group (amine) are prepared. A stoichiometric amount of the oligomer is melt-blended with the trunk copolymer. The result is that the short chains attach to the anhydride sites of the chain. The advantage of this process is that the researcher can control the type and the amount of side groups on the chain, thus controlling structure and variability in graft copolymers. Hammer received a B.A. degree from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1940, and a Ph.D. in physics in 1948 from the University of Wisconsin. Before joining Du Pont in 1948, Hammer worked at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory and was an ensign in the U.S. Navy Reserves in 1944-45. Since his retirement from Du Pont, Hammer has worked as a consultant.
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ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry sponsored by Aldrich Chemical Co. CLAYTON HEATHCOCK, professor of chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, is being honored for his pioneering work in acyclic stereoselection. According to a colleague, "his landmark series of more than 40 papers on the topic since 1977 has been a major force in creating a whole new field of organic chemistry." The award winner received his B.S. degree from Abilene Christian College in 1958 and went to work at Champion Paper & Fibre Co., Pasadena, Tex., as a pulp and paper technologist. He was made supervisor of chemical tests in 1959. He received a Ph.D. at the University of Colorado in 1963, and then went to Columbia University as a postdoctoral fellow. In 1964 he joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, as assistant professor. He was named professor in 1975, and served as vice chairman of the department of chemistry in 1972-77 and chairman in 1986-89. From 1977 to 1982, he and his students were instrumental in developing an understanding of the three-dimensional nature of the aldol addition reaction. This research was, in part, responsible for the emergence of a field of contemporary research in organic chemistry termed acyclic stereoselection. Since that time, they have extended their work to similar organic reactions, including the Michael addition reaction. Heathcock and his group have also researched new strategies
Hoffman
for the multistep synthesis of complex organic molecules of the type that are useful in medicinal chemistry. Winner of the 1986 ACS Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Essential Oils & Related Products for his contributions to the total synthesis of terpenoid and alkaloid natural products, Heathcock has recently distinguished himself with the synthesis of a member of the highly complex Daphniphyllum alkaloids. His synthesis includes the rational production of four rings in one step in high yield in constructing the alkaloid skeleton. Heathcock is coauthor, with Andrew Streitwieser, of the college chemistry text, "Introduction to Organic Chemistry." He is also editorin-chief of the Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Garvan Medal sponsored by Olin Corp. A major international figure in nuclear chemistry for more than two decades, DARLEANE C HOFFMAN has made important contributions in her field through research, writing, teaching, and service to the scientific community. Since 1984 she has been professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Lab. But for three decades Hoffman worked with first the Radiochemistry Group and then the Nuclear Chemistry Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was at Los Alamos that Hoffman discovered plutonium-244 in nature, either a remnant from nucleosynthesis in our solar system or from cosmic
radiation. Her early research in the separation processes of the heavy elements developed techniques that are still in use today. This original interest in chemical separations placed the awardee as a leading figure in the studies of the heaviest elements, in which the systems are defined as "one-at-a-time" chemistry. Hoffman's current research with 10 UCB graduate students has focused on the chemical and nuclear properties of the transplutonium elements. Her group is one of only two or three in the world that has access to the required accelerators, heavy element targets, and expertise in the radiochemical and nuclear techniques and data acquisition systems required for these studies. Recently, they performed the first aqueous chemistry on hahnium (element 105) using the longest known isotope, which has a half-life of only 35 seconds. The awardee is credited with nearly 140 published papers, and over the years has given numerous invited lectures. She is currently serving on six advisory committees while remaining active with other professionally related domestic and i n t e r n a t i o n a l activities. In 1987 Hoffman was awarded a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science fellowship. Other major awards she has received include the Iowa State University Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award, 1986; the ACS Award for Nuclear Chemistry, 1983; and a senior National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship in Oslo, Norway, 1964-65. Hoffman received a B.S. in chemistry from Iowa State University in 1948 and a Ph.D. in physical (nuclear) chemistry in 1951 from the same university.
ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry sponsored by Mallinckrodt Inc. RICHARD H. HOLM is "a world leader in the field of bioinorganic chemistry and is, in a sense, the inventor of this field/' says a colleague. He has, adds another colleague, "an unerring ability to identify important scientific problems, September 25, 1989 C&EN
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to grapple with their essence, and to spare no degree of effort or manpower in his laboratory to bring his research to successful fruition." Holm is Higgins Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University. Holm's studies of iron-sulfur clusters have established the key principle that the form of certain inorganic prosthetic groups in metalloproteins may reflect spontaneous self-assembly and that the protein in metalloprotein has adapted somehow to surround a naturally stable inorganic functional group. His efforts toward modeling the active site of nitrogenase have been particularly fruitful. The extensive experience in synthesis based on this research also has started to yield some remarkable nonbiological molecules by rational design. But perhaps his most important contribution, says a colleague, is that "his demonstrations that the principles of inorganic chemistry are directly applicable to biological problems and that careful, detailed inorganic investigation pays off abundantly in biologically relevant results, have convinced an entire generation of inorganic chemists that they should learn and practice bioinorganic chemistry. He is, in short, the person who built the major intellectual bridge between biological and inorganic chemistry." Holm received a B.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1955 and a Ph.D degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1959. He started his career as instructor at Harvard in 1960, and left there in 1965 to join the faculty at the University of Wisconsin as associate professor of chemistry. Two years later he moved to MIT as pro78
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fessor of chemistry. In 1975, he joined the faculty at Stanford University. He returned to Harvard in 1980. The award winner has advanced inorganic chemistry through service as well as research. From 1983 to 1986 he chaired the department of chemistry at Harvard. He is curr e n t l y s e r v i n g on t h e editorial boards of Inorganic Chemistry, Chemical Reviews, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, Polyhedron, and Catalysis Letters. He has lectured widely in this country and abroad, and has been a key contributor in the planning of symposia and conferences. Among his many national and international honors are the ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry in 1976, the Centenary Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1980, and the Dwyer Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Society in 1987.
Frank H. Field and Joe L. Franklin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry sponsored by Extrel Corp.
MARJORIE and EVAN HORNING, two innovators in advancing the applications of mass spectrometry in analytical biochemistry, are honored jointly for research and results spanning nearly five decades. A colleague says the Hornings "have been instrumental in the promotion and establishment of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry as an indispensible tool in modern biochemistry and medicine." Although Evan Homing's early career stressed synthetic organic
chemistry and Marjorie Homing's the mammalian system, their interest and eventual concentration in analytical chemistry and trace analysis expanded to embrace gas chromatography (GC) in the 1950s. This placed them at the fore of the application of GC to the solution of biological problems. They introduced novel methodology for the isolation of steroids from urine and their analysis at the trace level by GC, representing a major breakthrough for the field of analytical biochemistry in the early 1960s. Subsequently, the application of GC/MS figured prominently in the awardees' work. Marjorie Horning was then able to report on the metabolic switching of drug pathways as a consequence of deuterium substitution. Most recently the Hornings have worked with the atmospheric pressure ionization (API) mass spectrometer, allowing detection limits on the order of femtograms and attomoles. Evan Horning currently is professor emeritus and retired director of the Institute for Lipid Research, Baylor College of Medicine. Marjorie Horning is professor emeritus at Baylor College of Medicine and adjunct professor of biochemical and biophysical sciences at the University of Houston. She is president of the Giovanni Lorenzini Medical Foundation. With their usually separate but equal careers, the awardees (each with over 200 publications to their credit) have collaborated on about 85 papers. Evan Horning is the editor of three books. Both Marjorie and Evan Horning have served and continue to serve on the editorial or advisory boards of a range of journals. And each has received numerous honors and fellowships over the years. Marjorie Horning is a former president of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Evan Horning received a B.S. in 1937 from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in 1940 from the University of Illinois; Marjorie Horning graduated with a B.A. in 1938 from Goucher College, Baltimore, and received M.S. (1940) and Ph.D. (1943) degrees from the University of Michigan. D
