Editor's Page pubs.acs.org/Organometallics
Award-Winning Organometallic Chemistry: The 2011 Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences Organometallics now recognizes chemists who have earned awards from chemical societies, agencies, or comparable bodies worldwide for advancing organometallic chemistry. This has resulted in a rich series of “award articles” from a broad range of honorees over the last 18 months.1 This issue is the first to highlight an award from the European Academy of Sciences, an organization that traces its roots to 1999 and currently consists of 10 divisions.2 This body has established several prizes, of which the Blaise Pascal Medal for Science and Technology3 is the focus herein. Up to six Medals, with a cap of one per division, may be conferred each year. In 2011, the Medal in Chemistry was awarded to Prof. Dr. Helmut Schwarz of the Technische Universität Berlin “in recognition of his pioneering work using modern mass spectrometry for the disclosure of reaction mechanisms such as those of hydrocarbon activation”. Helmut Schwarz (Figure 1) is a prolific scientist who is approaching 1000 scientific articles to his credit. He has been a strong supporter of Organometallics throughout, with this issue featuring his 45th publication in this journal. His contributions,
which have often been “outside the box”, have had a very strong impact upon our field from the standpoint of bonding, dynamics, mechanism, small-molecule activation, and fundamental thermodynamics. They also underscore the fact that organometallic chemistry is not limited to condensed phases, despite the preponderance of such studies in the literature. Helmut Schwarz has received many other honors that reflect his accomplishments in organometallic chemistry and other fields. Also of particular note is his Presidency of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2008−present), which is arguably the foremost agency globally in promoting international exchanges of scientists and scholars.4 An authoritative full paper, which describes some of Helmut Schwarz’s achievements that led to his award, can be found at the beginning of the Articles section. A biographical sketch is featured therein. Helmut, we warmly congratulate you on the occasion of your Blaise Pascal Medal and also for your many other richly deserved recognitions. We are confident that the creative insight and energy you have bought to our field will continue unabated.
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John A. Gladysz, Editor in Chief REFERENCES
(1) Previous Editor's Page in this series: Gladysz,, J. A. Organometallics 2012, 31, 1583. (2) http://www.eurasc.org/index.asp. (3) For a brief biography of Blaise Pascal, especially known in chemistry and NMR spectroscopy for Pascal’s triangle, see http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal. (4) http://www.avh.de/web/home.html.
Figure 1. The leitmotifs of Prof. Dr. Helmut Schwarz: outstanding chemistry lectures, inspiring locations. © 2012 American Chemical Society
Published: May 25, 2012 3815
dx.doi.org/10.1021/om3002069 | Organometallics 2012, 31, 3815−3815
