news of the week J UNE 29, 2009 EDITED BY WILLIAM G. SCHULZ & ALICIA J. CHAMBERS
PRESIDENTIAL HONORS
STEVE RITTER/C&EN
to convert plantderived fatty acids into long-chain esters for use as emollients and GREEN CHEMISTRY: Awards emulsifiers in cosrecognize innovations that metic and personal promote sustainability care products. CEM Corp. of Matthews, N.C., LEANER, CHEAPER, SMARTER chemistry. took home the That has become green chemistry’s tag line. Greener Reaction And nowhere is it better exemplified than in the Conditions Award chemical research and emerging technologies put forfor its Sprint Rapid ward by the winners of the Presidential Green ChemisProtein Analyzer try Challenge Awards. and iTAG labeling This year’s honorees were recognized for their chemistry, which The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards are represented by decorative flasks etched with world maps. achievements at a ceremony held on June 22 at the Carpermits users to negie Institution for Science, in Washington, D.C. The selectively label event served as the kickoff for the annual Green Chemis- proteins with an azo dye for colorimetric total protein try & Engineering Conference, which took place on June analysis of foods without generating hazardous waste. 23–25 at the University of Maryland, College Park. Procter & Gamble and Cook Composites & PolyAmerican Chemical Society President Thomas H. mers teamed up to win the Designing Greener Lane, speaking during the ceremony, observed that the Chemicals Award for creating Chempol MPS alkyd awards “pay tribute to the ingenuity of chemists and resin technology, which uses a sucrose ester made the commitment to our professional code of conduct. from sugar and vegetable oil as a combination solPart of that code states that we should understand and vent-resin that significantly reduces the amount anticipate the environmental consequences of our of volatile organic compound emissions from oilwork and that we have a responsibility to prevent pollu- based paints and coatings. tion and to protect the environment.” “This year’s award-winning technologies The awards program, administered by EPA and represent the very best that green chemistry acsponsored in part by ACS, provides national recognicomplishes,” commented James J. Jones, acting astion for incorporating the principles of green chemistry sistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Prevention, and engineering into the design, manufacture, and use Pesticides & Toxic Substances, which houses EPA’s of chemical products to help achieve federal pollutionGreen Chemistry Program. They are not only exLane prevention goals and promote sustainability. amples of new enabling chemistry that will prevent Among the 2009 award winners is Carnegie Mellon millions of pounds of hazardous waste from being University chemistry professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewformed, Jones added, but also examples of “doing it ski, who received the Academic Award for developing right the first time.” atom-transfer radical polymerization techniques that The 2009 Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Student use small amounts of a copper catalyst in conjuncAwards in Green Chemistry, sponsored by the ACS Divition with environmentally friendly reducing agents or sion of Environmental Chemistry and the National Inradical initiators. This research has opened up greener stitute of Standards & Technology, were also presented routes to advanced polymeric materials. at the ceremony. This year’s recipients are Johnathan Virent Energy Systems, Madison, Wis., garnered the T. Gorke of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Small-Business Award for its BioForming refinery proand Joseph B. Binder of the University of Wisconsin, cess, an efficient aqueous-phase catalytic method to Madison. Each award consists of $1,000 and a certificate make biofuels and chemicals from plant sugars, starch, and is named in honor of Hancock, an early proponent of or cellulose. green chemistry who died unexpectedly in 1993 during Eastman Chemical landed the Greener Synthetic his tenure as director of the National Science FoundaPathways Award for developing a biocatalytic process tion’s Chemistry Division. Madeleine Jacobs, ACS’s executive director and CEO, preC&EN Online has more about the award-winning sented the awards to Gorke and MORE ONLINE chemistry and technology. Click on this article. Binder.—STEVE RITTER WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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PETER CUTTS PHOTOGRAPHY
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