SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY
Symposium honors Vanderbilf s J. C. Martin Speakers at a symposium titled "From σ Constants to σ Aromaticity" gather around Vanderbilt University professor of chemistry James Cullen Martin, in whose honor the sympo sium was held. The event, presented by the university's chemistry depart ment, brought together former stu dents, postdoctoral fellows, and
donate a very substantial sum of mon ey to endow this prize is testament to Hirschfelder's devotion and vision/' The new prize honors Hirschfelder's memory by recognizing important re search accomplishments in theoretical chemistry or related fields, such as phys ics, biophysics, and chemical engineer ing. Each recipient will spend one week at the University of Wisconsin and give a series of three lectures. Widom, the current winner, was selected by univer sity scientists, but subsequent awardees are to be selected with assistance from an international advisory committee that is currently being formed. In the past, theoretical chemistry has been a neglected area for awards, Skin ner notes, and the Hirschfelder Prize will help to fill that gap. Increased rec ognition for physical chemists will also come from the recently established American Chemical Society Award for Theoretical Chemistry, a $5000 annual award sponsored by IBM. The first re cipient, for 1993, is chemistry professor Martin Karplus of Harvard University. Stu Borman 32
SEPTEMBER 7,1992 C&EN
friends, who paid tribute to 40 years of publication by Martin. Martin's earlier work in free-radical chemistry gave the first evidence for neighbor ing-group participation in peroxide decompositions forming radicals. His more recent research has focused on synthesis of novel hypervalent maingroup element species, with stability
established by use of new types of ligands. Gathered with Martin are (left to right, along wall) Peter Livant of Au burn University; Wesley Bentrude of the Universi ty of Utah; Thomas Fish er of Mississippi State University; John Verkade of Iowa State University; William McEwen of the University of Massachu setts; Yohsuke Yamamoto of Japan's Hirosha University; Howard Hargis of Auburn University; Peter Beak of the Univer sity of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign; (middle) Alan Cowley of the Uni versity of Texas; Gary Schuster of the Universi ty of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign; (front) Martin; Anthony Arduengo of Du Pont Central Re search Laboratory, Wilmington; and Yorke Rhodes of New York Universi ty. Speakers not pictured were James Franz of Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, Wash.; and Clifford Dykstra of Indiana-Purdue University, Indianapolis.
Microwaves clean up stack gas pollutants
W A S H I N G T O N , D.C. Development work is proceeding on an electromagnetic technique for cleaning sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the stack gases resulting from coal combustion. The process makes use of high-frequency electromagnetic waves (microwaves). Work on the process is being led by Chang Y. Cha, president of Cha Corp., Laramie, Wyo., who is also a chemical engineering professor at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. It is one of the programs sponsored by the Depart ment of Energy's program for Small Business Innovation Research, DOE coal utilization division project manag er Soung S. Kim told the Division of Petroleum Chemistry. Coal-fired utility plants, Kim points out, currently pro-
vide about 55% of all electricity gener ated in the U.S., and produce 65% of all sulfur dioxide emissions. In the new process, Kim says, sulfur dioxide is absorbed in an activated char bed and decomposed under the micro wave energy field to sulfur, whereas the nitrogen oxides are decomposed di rectly under the microwaves to nitrogen. The sulfur is cooled in a spray chamber and recovered as a by-product for sale. The nitrogen is released into the atmo sphere. The process doesn't require expen sive sorbents or catalysts and produces no liquid or solid waste streams, Kim explains. Lab tests indicate that about 98% of the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are decomposed to sulfur and nitrogen. The initial evaluation has shown the process to be technically and economically feasible, with the po tential to be highly efficient and costeffective, he adds. James Krieger
