Jacobsen receives 2024 Willard Gibbs Medal

Eric Jacobsen, the Sheldon Emory Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, will receive the 2024 Willard Gibbs Medal. The award recognizes exceptional individuals whose pioneering work has opened new fields of chemical research.

Jacobsen is being honored for discovering useful catalytic reactions and applying state-of-the-art mechanistic and computational techniques to analyze those reactions. Jacobsen’s mechanistic analyses of these systems have helped uncover general principles for catalyst design and reaction design that enabled breakthroughs such as the Jacobsen epoxidation reaction. His work has led to a new class of catalysts that are now used as tools for more efficient and selective synthesis of many organic materials, including biologically active and pharmaceutically important molecules.

The award celebration will be held May 17 in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. More information is available at chicagoacs.org.