Priestley Medal
Encyclopedia
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
(ACS) and is awarded for distinguished service in the field of chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
. Established in 1922, the award is named after Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
, the discoverer of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
who immigrated to the United States of America in 1794. The ACS formed in 1876, spearheaded by a group of chemists who had met two years previously in Priestley's home.
The Priestley Medal is commonly awarded to scientists who are advanced in their fields, as it is intended to commemorate lifetime achievement. When the ACS started presenting the Priestley Medal in 1928, they intended to award it every three years. This continued until 1944, when it became an annual award.
Recipients
1940s
- 1941 Thomas Midgley, Jr.Thomas Midgley, Jr.Thomas Midgley, Jr. was an American mechanical engineer and chemist. Midgley was a key figure in a team of chemists, led by Charles F. Kettering, that developed the tetraethyllead additive to gasoline as well as some of the first chlorofluorocarbons . Over the course of his career, Midgley was...
- 1944 James Bryant ConantJames Bryant ConantJames Bryant Conant was a chemist, educational administrator, and government official. As thePresident of Harvard University he reformed it as a research institution.-Biography :...
- 1945 Ian HeilbronIan HeilbronSir Ian Morris Heilbron DSO FRS was a British chemist and a Fellow of the Royal Society . He was knighted in 1946...
- 1946 Roger AdamsRoger AdamsRoger Adams was an American organic chemist. He is best-known for the eponymous Adams' catalyst, and his work did much to determine the composition of naturally occurring substances such as complex vegetable oils and plant alkaloids...
- 1947 Warren K. LewisWarren K. LewisWarren Kendall Lewis was an MIT professor who has been called the father of modern chemical engineering. He co-authored an early major textbook on the subject which essentially introduced the concept of unit operations...
- 1948 Edward R. WeidleinEdward R. WeidleinEdward Ray Weidlein was a chemist and later Director, Chairman, and President at the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. He served as president of the American Chemical Society in 1937 and of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers...
- 1949 Arthur B. Lamb
1950s
- 1950 Charles A. KrausCharles A. KrausCharles August Kraus was an American chemist. He was professor of chemistry and director of the chemical laboratories at Clark University, where he directed the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I...
- 1951 E. J. Crane
- 1952 Samuel C. LindSamuel C. LindSamuel Colville Lind was a radiation chemist, referred to as "the father of modern radiation chemistry". He was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1930. He served as president of the American Electrochemical Society in 1927 and the American Chemical Society in...
- 1953 Sir Robert Robinson
- 1954 W. Albert Noyes, Jr.W. Albert Noyes, Jr.William Albert Noyes, Jr. was a chemist and the son of a famous chemist, William A. Noyes. They are the only father and son who have each won the Priestley Medal.-External links:*...
(son of William A. NoyesWilliam A. NoyesWilliam Albert Noyes was an American analytical and organic chemist. He made pioneering determinations of atomic weights, chaired the Chemistry Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1907 to 1926, was the founder and editor of several important chemical journals, and...
) - 1955 Charles A. Thomas
- 1956 Carl S. Marvel
- 1957 Farrington DanielsFarrington DanielsFarrington Daniels , was an American physical chemist, is considered one of the pioneers of the modern direct use of solar energy.- Biography :Daniels was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 8, 1889...
- 1958 Ernest H. VolwilerErnest H. VolwilerErnest Henry Volwiler spent his entire career at Abbott Laboratories working his way from staff chemist to CEO....
- 1959 Hermann Irving SchlesingerHermann Irving SchlesingerHermann Irving Schlesinger was an American inorganic chemist, working in boron chemistry.He and Herbert C. Brown discovered sodium borohydride in 1940 and both were involved in further development of borohydride chemistry....
1960s
- 1960 Wallace R. BrodeWallace R. BrodeWallace Reed Brode was an American chemist. He was president of the American Chemical Society in 1969 and of the Optical Society of America in 1961...
- 1961 Louis Plack HammettLouis Plack HammettLouis Plack Hammett was an American physical chemist. He is known for the Hammett equation, which relates reaction rates to equilibrium constants for certain classes of organic reactions involving substituted aromatic compounds...
- 1962 Joel H. Hildebrand
- 1963 Peter J. W. DebyePeter DebyePeter Joseph William Debye FRS was a Dutch physicist and physical chemist, and Nobel laureate in Chemistry.-Early life:...
- 1964 John C. Bailar, Jr.
- 1965 William J. SparksWilliam J. SparksWilliam Joseph Sparks was a chemist at Exxon. As an inventor, his most important contribution was the development of butyl rubber....
- 1966 William O. BakerWilliam O. BakerWilliam Oliver Baker was a former President of Bell Labs who had advised five Presidents on scientific matters. He received his degree from Washington College and went on to get a doctorate from Princeton University, studying under Charles Phelps Smyth...
- 1967 Ralph ConnorRalph Connor (scientist)Ralph Connor was a chemist who was awarded the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society in 1967. Connor is most known for his research in organic chemistry, catalysis, synthesis, explosives, and reaction mechanisms...
- 1968 William G. YoungWilliam Gould YoungWilliam Gould Young was a physical organic chemist and professor at UCLA. Among his awards were the Priestley Medal in 1968.-References:...
- 1969 Kenneth S. Pitzer
1970s
- 1970 Max TishlerMax TishlerMax Tishler was a scientist at Merck & Co. who led the research teams that synthesized ascorbic acid, riboflavin, cortisone, miamin, pyridoxin, pantothenic acid, nicotinamide, methionine, threonine, and tryptophan...
- 1971 Frederick D. Rossini
- 1972 George B. Kistiakowsky
- 1973 Harold C. Urey
- 1974 Paul J. Flory
- 1975 Henry EyringHenry EyringHenry Eyring was a Mexican-born American theoretical chemist whose primary contribution was in the study of chemical reaction rates and intermediates....
- 1976 George S. HammondGeorge S. HammondGeorge S. Hammond was a chemist at Iowa State University and the California Institute of Technology. Among his awards were the Norris Award in 1968 and the Priestley Medal in 1976 and the National Medal of Science in 1994...
- 1977 Henry GilmanHenry GilmanHenry Gilman was an American organic chemist known as the father of organometallic chemistry, the field within which his most notable work was done. He discovered the Gilman reagent, which bears his name....
- 1978 Melvin CalvinMelvin CalvinMelvin Ellis Calvin was an American chemist most famed for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham, for which he was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He spent most of his five-decade career at the University of California, Berkeley.- Life :Calvin was born...
- 1979 Glenn T. SeaborgGlenn T. SeaborgGlenn Theodore Seaborg was an American scientist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements", contributed to the discovery and isolation of ten elements, and developed the actinide concept, which led to the current arrangement of the...
1980s
- 1980 Milton HarrisMilton Harris (scientist)Milton Harris was a scientist who founded the Harris Research Laboratories and, for six years, chaired the Board of Directors of the National Academy of Sciences....
- 1981 Herbert C. BrownHerbert C. BrownHerbert Charles Brown was a chemist and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate for his work with organoboranes....
- 1982 Bryce Crawford, Jr.Bryce CrawfordBryce Low Crawford, Jr. was an American scientist. He worked for decades as a professor of physical chemistry in the University of Minnesota....
- 1983 Robert S. MullikenRobert S. MullikenRobert Sanderson Mulliken was an American physicist and chemist, primarily responsible for the early development of molecular orbital theory, i.e. the elaboration of the molecular orbital method of computing the structure of molecules. Dr. Mulliken received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1966...
- 1984 Linus PaulingLinus PaulingLinus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century...
- 1985 Henry TaubeHenry TaubeHenry Taube, Ph.D, M.Sc, B.Sc, FRSC was a Canadian-born American chemist noted for having been awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his work in the mechanisms of electron-transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes." He was the first Canadian-born chemist to win the Nobel Prize...
- 1986 Karl A. Folkers
- 1987 John D. RobertsJohn D. RobertsJohn Dombrowski Roberts is an American chemist. He has made contributions to the integration of physical chemistry, spectroscopy and organic chemistry for the understanding of chemical reaction rates....
- 1988 Frank H. Westheimer
- 1989 George C. PimentelGeorge C. PimentelGeorge Claude Pimentel was the inventor of the chemical laser. He also developed the modern technique of matrix isolation in low-temperature chemistry. In theoretical chemistry, he proposed the three-centre four-electron bond which is now accepted as the best simple model of hypervalent...
1990s
- 1990 Roald HoffmannRoald HoffmannRoald Hoffmann is an American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He currently teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.-Escape from the Holocaust:...
- 1991 Harry B. Gray
- 1992 Carl DjerassiCarl DjerassiCarl Djerassi is an Austrian-American chemist, novelist, and playwright best known for his contribution to the development of the first oral contraceptive pill . Djerassi is emeritus professor of chemistry at Stanford University.He participated in the invention in 1951, together with Mexican Luis E...
- 1993 Robert W. ParryRobert W. ParryRobert W. Parry was a professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan and the University of Utah. Among his awards were the Priestley Medal in 1993.-References:...
- 1994 Howard E. Simmons
- 1995 Sir Derek H. R. BartonDerek Harold Richard BartonSir Derek Harold Richard Barton FRS was a British organic chemist and Nobel Prize laureate.-Biography:Barton was born to William Thomas and Maude Henrietta Barton. He attended Tonbridge School and in 1938 he entered Imperial College London, where he graduated in 1940 and obtained his Ph.D. degree...
- 1996 Ernest L. ElielErnest L. ElielErnest Ludwig Eliel was a chemist born in Cologne, Germany. Among his awards were the Priestley Medal in 1996 and the NAS Award for Chemistry in Service to Society in 1997....
- 1997 Mary L. GoodMary L. GoodMary Lowe Good is an inorganic chemist who does industrial research and has worked in government. She received her BS from the University of Central Arkansas and in 1955 received her PhD in from the University of Arkansas...
- 1998 F. Albert CottonF. Albert CottonFrank Albert Cotton was the W.T. Doherty-Welch Foundation Chair and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University. He authored over 1700 scientific articles. Cotton was recognized for his research on the chemistry of the transition metals.-Education:Frank Albert Cotton was born on...
- 1999 Ronald BreslowRonald BreslowRonald C. D. Breslow is an American chemist from Rahway, New Jersey. He is currently University Professor at Columbia University, where he is based in the Department of Chemistry and affiliated with the Departments of Biological Sciences and Pharmacology; he has also been on the faculty of its...
2000s
- 2000 Darleane C. HoffmanDarleane C. HoffmanDarleane C. Hoffman is an American nuclear chemist who was among the researchers who confirmed the existence of Seaborgium, element 106. She is a faculty senior scientist in the Nuclear Science Division of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and a professor in the graduate school at UC Berkeley.She...
- 2001 Fred BasoloFred BasoloFred Basolo was an American inorganic chemist. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1943 with John C. Bailar. Basolo spent his entire professional career at Northwestern University...
- 2002 Allen J. BardAllen J. BardAllen Joseph Bard is an American chemist. He is the Hackerman-Welch Regents Chair Professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Among his awards were the Priestley Medal in 2002 and the 2008 Wolf Prize in Chemistry...
- 2003 Edwin J. VandenbergEdwin J. VandenbergEdwin J. Vandenberg was a chemist at Hercules Inc. and a researcher at Arizona State University. Among his awards were the Priestley Medal in 2003.-Awards:* ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry...
- 2004 Elias J. Corey
- 2005 George A. Olah
- 2006 Paul S. AndersonPaul S. AndersonPaul S. Anderson is an American chemist. He worked at Merck, DuPont-Merck, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Among his awards were the Perkin Medal in 2002, the NAS Award for Chemistry in Service to Society in 2003 and the Priestley Medal in 2006....
- 2007 George M. WhitesidesGeorge M. WhitesidesGeorge M. Whitesides is an American chemist and professor of chemistry at Harvard University. He is best known for his work in the areas of NMR spectroscopy, organometallic chemistry, molecular self-assembly, soft lithography, microfabrication, microfluidics, and nanotechnology...
- 2008 Gabor A. SomorjaiGabor A. SomorjaiGabor A. Somorjai is currently a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and is a leading researcher in the field of surface chemistry and catalysis...
- 2009 M. Frederick HawthorneM. Frederick HawthorneProfessor M. Frederick Hawthorne was born in 1928 in Fort Scott, Kansas and he received his elementary and secondary education in Kansas and Missouri. Prior to high school graduation, through examination he entered the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Rolla, Missouri as a chemical...