Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal

When 2009 ACS President Thomas H. Lane called to tell Judith C. Giordan she would receive the award, she was uncharacteristically silent. So silent, in fact, that Lane thought perhaps the phone had gone dead. “Are you there? Judy? Can you hear me?” he asked. Luckily, he didn’t hang up.

“I couldn’t speak. I was in shock. I had no idea I had even been nominated,” she ebulliently recalls. “It was truly a surprise and a dream come true. This is such an honor that I was, for once, at a loss for words.”

Giordan, however, rarely hesitates to speak her mind. She is sought after by companies that need her carefully honed research skills applied to management, education, and entrepreneurism. She has recently started to focus on career management strategies for women in industry, a subject that she knows very well.

Giordan’s life as an industry executive began 20 years ago, when, at 36, she became vice president of R&D at Henkel, the first woman executive at the company. After developing a technical organization model that was adopted at the company headquarters in Germany, Giordan was recruited into a comparable position by Pepsi-Cola and then by International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF).

According to a former colleague, “At Henkel, Judy led the formation of a first-class research institution from scratch, and at IFF, she brought a staid 1930s-style research organization into the 21st century.” These were no small accomplishments because at the time Giordan was hired, “both organizations were unaccustomed to change or to women in upper management.” She taught both firms her entrepreneurial style and introduced them to technology portfolio selection and management, leading to sustained increases in corporate profitability and funding for R&D.

After her time in industry, Giordan changed tracks and is now a serial entrepreneur and consultant. She is managing director of Steel City Re, a company that helps businesses safeguard their intangible assets; vice president and cofounder of Visions in Education, which provides strategic services to universities, start-ups, and nonprofits; senior adviser for the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance; and professor of practice at the University of Southern Mississippi, where she consults on a partnership between its polymer science and medicinal chemistry programs. She was detailed from her university position to the National Science Foundation in 2006 for a stint as program director for the Integrative Graduate Education & Research Traineeship Program, which she has recently completed.

Giordan received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Rutgers University in 1975 and a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from the University of Maryland in 1980. After that, she was off to Germany for an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Frankfurt.

Former ACS president William F. Carroll sums up his experience with this award-winning dynamo. “To know Judy Giordan is to experience a type and volume of energy undocumented by physics. She is unrelenting in her efforts to support initiatives on behalf of science. She is personable, knowledgeable, and a master at getting good work done.”

Giordan will present the award address before the Division of Business Development & Management.