NEWS OF THE WEEK AWARDS
WINNERS OF WOLF PRIZE ANNOUNCED Kagan, Noyori, and Sharpless honored for chiral synthesis contributions
T
HE 2 0 0 I WOLF FOUNDATION
Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Henri B. Kagan of the University of Paris-South, Ryoji Noyori of Nagoya University, and K. Barry Sharpless of Scripps Research Institute. The foundation, based in Herzila, Israel, is honoring the chemists for their "pioneering, creative, and crucial work in developing methods for the synthesis of chiral molecules." Kagan received a B.A. in chemistry from the Sorbonne
and Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie in 1954 and a Ph.D. from College de France in I960. A member of the faculty at University of Paris-South since 1967, he now has emeritus status. His other honors include the Prelog Medal from the Swiss Federal Institute ofTechnology in Zurich and the Centenary Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry Noyori, professor of chemistry and director of the Research Center for Materials Science at Nagoya University, was educated
POLICY
FIXING ENERGY'S SCIENCE CRISIS Panel urges fundamental change in research at the Department of Energy
H
OPING TO INFLUENCE THE
new Congress and Administration, a high-level panel of science educators and former federal advisers released apian to overhaul the D e p a r t m e n t of Energy's science operations. The panel's 11 members are familiar with D O E science programs and include former director of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy J o h n H . Gibbons and former DOE Director of Science Martha Krebs. The authors note that D O E is the government's third largest sponsor of basic research and the largest federal provider of research in the physical sciences. HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
They add that its national laboratories and user facilities are critical to U.S. research. They warn that declines in D O E science funding and "perceptions" of mismanagement and security problems have put D O E science in "crisis." In a six-page report, the panel recommends several alternatives. These include increasing the visibility and influence of science by creating a D O E undersecretary for science & energy to direct all science activities and advise the secretary The panel offers other alternatives, including carving science and energy programs out of DOE and combining them with Com-
at Kyoto University, receiving a B.S. in 1961, anM.S. in 1963, and a Ph.D. in 1967 He has been at Nagoya since 1968, serving as dean of the graduate school of science from 1997 to 1999. He also is the recipient of the 2001 Roger Adams Award in Organic Chemistry from ACS (see page 99). Sharpless, professor of chemistry at Scripps, received a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1963 and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1968. Prior to joining the Scripps faculty in 1990, he was a professor at Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology and Stanford. He also is receiving the 2001 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry from Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Institute. The $100,000 Wolf Prize, to be divided equally among the winners, will be presented during a ceremony at the Knesset, Israel's Parliament-CELIA HENRY
merce Department agencies such as the National Institute of Standards & Technology and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. It also proposes rolling all of these programs into their own independent subcabinet agency T h e report says it is highly undesirable to move D O E science into the NSF or to wrap all federal R&D programs into one big Department of Science. T h e panel grew out of an American Physical Society (APS) committee chaired by Robert C. Richardson, vice provost at Cornell University, who also led the panel. T h e recommendations have been taken to Senate and House committees and scientists close to the Bush Administration, APS officials say Much will depend on the views of Energy Secretary Designate Spencer Abraham, who, as a senator, sought to eliminate the department. The report is on the Internet at www.aps.org/apsnews/doe science.pdf-JEFF JOHNSON C&EN
PIONEERS (from top) Kagan, Noyori, and Sharpless
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JANUARY
22, 2001
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