Gokel Wins 2007 Midwest Award

George W. Gokel, Distinguished Professor of Science and associate director of the Center for Nanoscience at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, has been awarded the 2007 Midwest Regional Award by the ACS St. Louis Section.

The annual award recognizes outstanding achievements in chemistry in the Midwest region and is given to a scientist who has made meritorious contributions to the advancement of pure or applied chemistry, chemical education, and the profession of chemistry.

Gokel has developed a new family of anion-selective channels that are amphiphilic peptides. The compounds have been demonstrated to mediate chloride transport in vital lung epithelial tissue. The work may lead to an aerosol drug delivery system for cystic fibrosis. Gokel is also studying cation-π interactions involving alkali metal cations. He has designed a receptor system that can be systematically varied structurally, sterically, and electronically to probe these cation-π interactions.

Gokel will receive the Midwest Regional Award and deliver an award lecture during the 42nd Midwest Regional Meeting in Kansas City, Mo., that will be held on Nov. 7–9.