The Chemical Pioneer Award, established in 1966, is awarded by the

American Institute of Chemists The American Institute of Chemists (AIC) is an organization founded in 1923 with the goal of advancing the chemistry profession in the United States. The institute is known for its yearly awards recognizing contributions of individuals in this fi ...

to recognize chemists or chemical engineers who have made outstanding contributions to advances in chemistry or the chemical profession.

Recent recipients

Source
AIC
* 2022 Alison Butler,

Chi-Huey Wong Chi-Huey Wong is a Taiwanese-American biochemist. He is currently the Scripps Family Chair Professor at the Scripps Research Institute, California in the Department of Chemistry. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, ...

* 2021 Benjamin Cravatt,

Veronica Vaida Veronica Vaida (born August 3, 1950) is a Romanian-American chemist and professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is an expert in environmental chemistry and aerosols. Early life and education Vaida was born in Bucharest. Her parents ...

, Jonathan L. Sessler * 2020 ''No award'' * 2019 William H. Starnes, Jr., Peng Chen, Richard B. Kaner *2018 Kenneth S. Suslick (

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...

); Vicki H. Grassian (

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

); Mercouri Kanatzidis (

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

) *2017 Paul A. Craig (

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional ...

); Jeffrey W. Kelly ( Scripps Research Institute);

Marek W. Urban Marek W. Urban is an American professor, polymer and materials scientist who works in the field of polymers, polymer spectroscopy, polymeric coatings and films, stimuli-responsive materials, and self-healing polymers. He studied at Marquette Univ ...

(

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...

) *2016 Rebecca L. Cann (

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

) ;

Donna Blackmond Donna Blackmond, Ph.D., (born April 19, 1958) is an American chemical engineer and the John C. Martin Endowed Chair in Chemistry at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA. Her research focuses on prebiotic chemistry, the origin of biological homochirali ...

(

The Scripps Research Institute Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the instit ...

); Michael Wasielewski (

) *2015 ''No award'' *2014

Anthony Cheetham Sir Anthony Kevin Cheetham (born 16 November 1946) is a British materials scientist. From 2012 to 2017 he was Vice-President and Treasurer of the Royal Society. Education Cheetham was educated at Stockport Grammar School and read chemistry at ...

(

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, England) ;

Ann M. Valentine Ann M. Valentine is an American bioinorganic chemist whose research focuses on biomineralization, the uptake and transport of metals and their medical applications in areas such as cancer research. She has received awards including the 2014 AICC ...

(

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

) ;

Robert Langer Robert Samuel Langer Jr. FREng (born August 29, 1948) is an American chemical engineer, scientist, entrepreneur, inventor and one of the twelve Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was formerly the Germeshau ...

(

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

) *2013

Henry F. Schaefer, III Henry Frederick "Fritz" Schaefer III (born June 8, 1944) is a computational and theoretical chemist. He is one of the most highly cited chemists in the world, with a Thomson Reuters H-Index of 121 as of 2020. He is the Graham Perdue Professor of C ...

(

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

) ;

Thomas R. Tritton Thomas R. Tritton was the twelfth president of Haverford College, serving from 1997 to 2007. After his presidency, he served as president in residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. From 2008 to 2013, he served as president and CEO ...

(

Chemical Heritage Foundation The Science History Institute is an institution that preserves and promotes understanding of the history of science. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it includes a library, museum, archive, research center and conference center. It was fo ...

) *2012 Robert Lochhead ; Helen Free *2011 James Christner *2010

Sossina M. Haile Sossina M. Haile ( gez, ሶስና ሃይሌ, born July 28, 1966) is an American chemist, known for developing the first solid acid fuel cells. She is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA. H ...

(

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

) *2009 Keith Carron (

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

) ; Debashis Mukherjee (IACS) *2008 E. Gerald Meyer (

) ; Barnaby Munson (

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

) *2007 Magid Abou-Gharbia ; Dennis Y-M Lo ;

Alan G. Marshall Alan G. Marshall is an American analytical chemist who has devoted his scientific career to developing a scientific technique known as Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry, which he co-invented. He was born in Blu ...

(

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

) *2006 Glenn Crosby ; David Devraj Kumar (

Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Florida, Dania Beach, Davie, Florida, Davie, Fort Lauderd ...

) *2005

Bassam Shakhashiri Bassam Z. Shakhashiri (born 1939, Lebanon) is a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is the holder of the William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair. An active advocate for science education, he is the author of mul ...

; Steven L. Suib ; C.N.R. Rao *2004 Keki H. Gharda ; Eric Jacobsen ; Michael Pirrung *2002 Gerard Jaouen ; Julius Rebek *2000 Richard A. Adams ;

Robert G. Bergman Robert George Bergman is an American chemist. He is Professor of the Graduate School and Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. Early life and education Born in Chicago, Robert Bergm ...

; Larry Dahl ; Wilfried Mortier ; Kenner Rice

Selected earlier recipients

*1999 ''No award'' *1998 John E. Bercaw ; Stephen J. Benkovic ; Albert Meyers *1997 Jerrold Meinwald *1996

K.C. Nicolaou Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou ( el, Κυριάκος Κ. Νικολάου; born July 5, 1946) is a Cypriot-American chemist known for his research in the area of natural products total synthesis. He is currently Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor o ...

;

Fred McLafferty Fred Warren McLafferty (May 11, 1923 − December 26, 2021) was an American chemist known for his work in mass spectrometry. He is best known for the McLafferty rearrangement reaction that was observed with mass spectrometry. With Roland Gohl ...

*1995 Gabor Somorjai ;

Owen Webster Owen Wright Webster (March 25, 1929 – April 13, 2018) was a distinguished member of the organic and polymer chemistry communities. His polymerization technique for making block copolymer dispersing agents is used by DuPont to make ink-jet printe ...

*1994

Norman L. Allinger Norman "Lou" Allinger (April 6, 1928 – July 8, 2020) was an American Organic chemistry, organic and computational chemistry, computational chemist and Distinguished Research Professor#Other positions, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the ...

; M. Frederick Hawthorne ;

John D. Roberts John Dombrowski Roberts (June 8, 1918 – October 29, 2016) was an American chemist. He made contributions to the integration of physical chemistry, spectroscopy, and organic chemistry for the understanding of chemical reaction rates. Ano ...

*1993 Derek H. R. Barton ;

Bruce Merrifield Robert Bruce Merrifield (July 15, 1921 – May 14, 2006) was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left ...

;

George Andrew Olah George Andrew Olah (born Oláh András György; May 22, 1927 – March 8, 2017) was a Hungarian-American chemist. His research involved the generation and reactivity of carbocations via superacids. For this research, Olah was awarded a Nobel Pr ...

*1992

Gilbert Stork Gilbert Stork (December 31, 1921 – October 21, 2017) was an organic chemist. For a quarter of a century he was the Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Columbia University. He is known for making significant contributions to the t ...

;

Fred Basolo Fred Basolo (11 February 1920 – 27 February 2007) was an American inorganic chemist. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1943, under Prof. John C. Bailar, Jr. Basolo spent his professional career at Nort ...

; Ralph F. Hirschmann *1991 Michel Boudart ;

Edith M. Flanigen Edith Marie Flanigen (born January 28, 1929) is a noted American chemist, known for her work on synthesis of emeralds, and later zeolites for molecular sieves at Union Carbide. Early life and education Edith Marie Flanigen was born January 28, ...

; Herbert S. Gutowsky ; Jack Halpern *1990

Michael J. S. Dewar Michael James Steuart Dewar (24 September 1918 – 10 October 1997) was an American theoretical chemist. Education and early life Dewar was the son of Scottish parents, Annie Balfour (Keith) and Francis Dewar. He received the degrees of Bache ...

*1989 Herman S. Bloch ; Harry R. Allcock ; David R. Bryant *1988 K. Barry Sharpless;

John H. Sinfelt John H. Sinfelt (February 18, 1931 in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, Munson, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania – May 28, 2011 in Morristown, New Jersey) was an American chemical engineer whose research on catalytic reforming was responsible for t ...

*1987 Herbert S. Eleuterio *1986

Howard Zimmerman Howard E. Zimmerman (July 5, 1926 – February 12, 2012) was a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1980 and the recipient of the 1986 American Institute of Chemist ...

*1985 Otto Vogl *1984

Alan MacDiarmid Alan Graham MacDiarmid, ONZ FRS (14 April 1927 – 7 February 2007) was a New Zealand-born American chemist, and one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000. Early life and education MacDiarmid was born in Masterton, New Z ...

;

Isabella Karle Isabella Karle (December 2, 1921 – October 3, 2017) was an American chemist who was instrumental in developing techniques to extract plutonium chloride from a mixture containing plutonium oxide. For her scientific work, Karle received the Garva ...

*1983 Harry G. Drickamer; William S. Knowles ; Barry M. Trost *1981

Elias James Corey Elias James Corey (born July 12, 1928) is an American organic chemistry, organic chemist. In 1990, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis", specifically retrosynthetic analysis. ...

*1980

Paul H. Emmett Paul Hugh Emmett (September 22, 1900 – April 22, 1985) was an American chemist best known for his pioneering work in the field of catalysis and for his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He spearheaded the research to separate is ...

; Stephanie Kwolek *1979

Paul Harteck Paul Karl Maria Harteck (20 July 190222 January 1985) was an Austrian physical chemist. In 1945 under Operation Epsilon in "the big sweep" throughout Germany, Harteck was arrested by the allied British and American Armed Forces for suspicion of ...

;

Barnett Rosenberg Barnett Rosenberg (16 November 1926 – 8 August 2009) was an American chemist best known for the discovery of the anti-cancer drug cisplatin. Rosenberg graduated from Brooklyn College in 1948 and obtained his PhD in physics at New York Universi ...

;

Leo Sternbach Leo Sternbach (May 7, 1908 – September 28, 2005) was a Polish American chemist who is credited with first synthesizing benzodiazepines, the main class of tranquilizers. Background and family Sternbach was born on May 7, 1908, in Opatija, K ...

;

Alejandro Zaffaroni Alejandro Zaffaroni (February 27, 1923 – March 1, 2014) was a Uruguayan serial entrepreneur who was responsible for founding several biotechnology companies in Silicon Valley. Products that he was involved in developing include the birth contr ...

*1977

Donald F. Othmer Donald Frederick Othmer (May 11, 1904 – November 1, 1995) was an American professor of chemical engineering, an inventor, multi-millionaire and philanthropist, whose most famous work is the '' Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology ...

*1976

Edwin T. Mertz Edwin Theodore Mertz (December 6, 1909 – February 1, 1999) was an American chemist and biochemist. Mertz was noted for co-discovery of high-lysine corn which significantly increased protein levels in corn and beans. Life and career * 1909 ...

*1975

Herbert C. Brown Herbert Charles Brown (May 22, 1912 – December 19, 2004) was an American chemist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with organoboranes. Life and career Brown was born Herbert Brovarnik in London, to Ukrainian Jewis ...

; Rachel Fuller Brown ; Elizabeth Lee Hazen ; Linus C. Pauling *1973 Melvin A. Cook ;

Paul J. Flory Paul John Flory (June 19, 1910 – September 9, 1985) was an American chemist and Nobel laureate who was known for his work in the field of polymers, or macromolecules. He was a leading pioneer in understanding the behavior of polymers in solu ...

;

Carl Djerassi Carl Djerassi (October 29, 1923 – January 30, 2015) was an Austrian-born Bulgarian-American pharmaceutical chemist, novelist, playwright and co-founder of Djerassi Resident Artists Program with Diane Middlebrook, Diane Wood Middlebrook. He is b ...

*1972

Herman Francis Mark Herman Francis Mark (May 3, 1895, Vienna – April 6, 1992, Austin, Texas) was an Austrian-American chemist regarded for his contributions to the development of polymer science. Mark's x-ray diffraction work on the molecular structure of fibers ...

; Lewis Sarett *1970

Tracy Hall Howard Tracy Hall (October 20, 1919 – July 25, 2008) was an American physical chemist and one of the early pioneers in the research of synthetic diamonds, using a press of his own design. Early life Howard Tracy Hall was born in Ogden, Uta ...

;

William J. Sparks William Joseph Sparks (February 26, 1905 – October 23, 1976) was a chemist at Exxon. As an inventor, his most important contribution was the development of butyl rubber. Sparks served as president of the American Chemical Society in 1966 and ...

*1969

Roy J. Plunkett Roy J. Plunkett (June 26, 1910 – May 12, 1994) was an American chemist. He discovered polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), better known as Teflon, in 1938. Personal life and education Plunkett was born in New Carlisle, Ohio and attended Newton Hig ...

; Harold C. Urey *1968

Glenn T. Seaborg Glenn Theodore Seaborg (; April 19, 1912February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work i ...

;

Max Tishler Max Tishler (October 30, 1906 – March 18, 1989) was president of Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories where he led the research teams that synthesized ascorbic acid, riboflavin, cortisone, pyridoxine, pantothenic acid, nicotinamide, ...

*1966

Eugene G. Rochow Eugene George Rochow (October 4, 1909 – March 21, 2002) was an American inorganic chemist. Rochow worked on organosilicon chemistry; in the 1940s, he described the direct process, also known as the Rochow process or Müller-Rochow process. Bo ...

, Charles C. Price

References

{{reflist American science and technology awards Chemistry awards Awards established in 1966

Recent recipients

Selected earlier recipients

See also

References