Levin Wins Hillebrand Prize

Ira W. Levin, deputy scientific director of the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases and chief of the molecular biophysics section at the Laboratory of Chemical Physics at the institute is the recipient of the 2007 Hillebrand Prize from the ACS Chemical Society of Washington.

Levin is being honored for his pioneering studies in the development and applications of vibrational spectroscopy and imaging microscopy in disciplines ranging from chemical physics and analytical chemistry to biophysics and medical diagnostics. His applications of infrared and Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy to problems in biophysical chemistry elucidated the architecture of unsaturated chain lipid clusters and aggregates, which form lateral and vertical bilayer domains.

The Hillebrand Prize has been awarded annually since 1925. It is named for the late William F. Hillebrand, a distinguished chemist who served in the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards & Technology).