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Environment

Awards

September 27, 2004 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 82, Issue 39

Blue Planet Prize Winners

Susan Solomon, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's Aeronomy Laboratory, is one of two winners of this year's Blue Planet Prize. Sponsored by the Asahi Glass Foundation, the Blue Planet Prize is an international environmental award given to individuals or organizations that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application that help solve global environmental problems. Solomon shares her prize with physician Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, director-general emeritus of the World Health Organization and former prime minister of Norway.

Because of Solomon's theories on heterogeneous chemical reactions of chlorine compounds on surfaces and her firsthand observations in Antarctica, scientists determined that increased atmospheric chlorine caused by human use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) was significantly depleting the ozone layer. Her findings helped to eventually institute a worldwide ban on CFCs.

Solomon and Brundtland will each receive 50 million yen (about $460,000). The awards ceremony will be held on Nov. 10 in Tokyo, with commemorative lectures by the prize recipients to be given the next day at the city's United Nations University.

Business Development Prize Goes To Short

WINNER
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Credit: PHOTO BY AALOK MEHTA
Short (second from left) receives the Henry F. Whalen Jr. Award from ACS President Charles P. Casey (left), Whalen (right), and DuPont's Chris Hollinsed.
Credit: PHOTO BY AALOK MEHTA
Short (second from left) receives the Henry F. Whalen Jr. Award from ACS President Charles P. Casey (left), Whalen (right), and DuPont's Chris Hollinsed.

Jay M. Short, president and CEO of Diversa, received the Henry F. Whalen Jr. Award for Business Development from the ACS Division of Business Development & Management at ACS's 228th national meeting in Philadelphia. BMGT honored Short for his use of strategic relationships as a business development strategy for Diversa.

Short joined the company in 1994 as chief technology officer and a member of the board of directors. In 1998, he was appointed president of the company, and he became CEO in 1999. Prior to joining Diversa, Short served as president of Stratacyte and vice president of R&D and operations for Stratagene Cloning Systems. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Taylor University, in Indiana, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.

Marletta Receives 2004 Harrison Howe Award

The ACS Rochester section has selected Michael A. Marletta, Aldo DeBenedictis Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley, to receive the 2004 Harrison E. Howe Award. The award is given to an individual without regard to nationality for outstanding contributions to research in chemistry defined in its broadest sense. Marletta will receive a plaque and honorarium at a dinner, awards ceremony, and lecture on Feb. 24, 2005, at the University of Rochester, in New York.

Marletta is being recognized for his work in bioorganic chemistry and enzymology, especially for his insights into nitric oxide signaling. Other work of note includes showing that immunostimulated macrophages make nitrates, that l-arginine is the precursor to nitrates, and that endothelial cells make NO.

Marletta, who also holds the titles of professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco, and faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, received a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from the State University of New York, Fredonia, in 1973 and a Ph.D. in 1978 from UCSF. After a postdoc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan before starting at Berkeley. He received the 1991 George H. Hitchings Award for Innovative Methods in Drug Discovery & Design and the 1995 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award and was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1999.

The Howe Award was established in 1946 in honor of one of the founders of the Rochester Section.

Karplus To Receive 2004 Pauling Award

Karplus
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Martin Karplus, Theodore William Richards Research Professor at Harvard University and Professeur Conventionné at Louis Pasteur University, has been selected to receive the 2004 Pauling Award. Recipients are selected for having made outstanding contributions to chemistry of a character that merit national and international praise. Karplus will receive the prize on Oct. 30 at the University of Washington, Seattle, following a scientific symposium.

As a theoretical chemist, Karplus has made noteworthy contributions to many areas of chemistry and is known for his "Karplus Equation," which is widely used in determining molecular structures from small organics to proteins. He is currently working on molecules that play an important role in living systems.

Karplus received his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology in 1953. After serving as a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University from 1953 to 1955, he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois. By 1960, he was a full professor at Columbia University; he joined the faculty at Harvard in 1966.

The Pauling Award is named after Pacific Northwest native Linus Pauling, who received the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize; Karplus was Pauling's last graduate student, as well as the first recipient of ACS's Theoretical Chemistry Award (in 1993). The Pauling Award is jointly sponsored by the ACS Puget Sound, Oregon, and Portland Sections.

Eisenberg Wins Seaborg Medal

Eisenberg
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David Eisenberg, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, will receive the 18th Annual Glenn T. Seaborg Medal on Nov. 13. The medal will be presented at a special presentation and dinner during the 2004 UCLA Seaborg Event, which will also feature the 11th Annual Seaborg Symposium on the topic of "Interacting Proteins."

Eisenberg is being honored for his research on the relationship of protein sequence to 3-D structure and function. His profile methods for describing a family of amino acid sequences and for searching for more distant members of the family have been extended into 3-D protein fold assignment, creating a field known as "threading" or "fold assignment." Eisenberg is also studying protein-protein interactions using X-ray crystallography and protein interactions from genome sequences and expression profiles.

In addition, Eisenberg's lab has applied X-ray crystallography to learn the structures of proteins, including melittin, glutamine synthetase, G-CSF, defensin, BPI, diphtheria toxin, RuBisCO, two RNase A domain-swapped dimers, and designed proteins.

Eisenberg received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and performed postdoctoral work at Princeton University and California Institute of Technology. He has been a recipient of ACS's Repligen Award.

Nominations Sought For LaMer Award

The ACS Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry is currently seeking nominations for the Victor K. LaMer Award for Graduate Research in Colloid & Surface Chemistry, which consists of a $2,500 prize and a certificate. The 36th LaMer Award will be presented at the 79th Colloid & Surface Science Symposium on June 12­15, 2005, at Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y.

The 2005 award recognizes an outstanding Ph.D. thesis accepted by a U.S. or Canadian university between Sept. 1, 2001, and Aug. 30, 2004. Nominations may be made by the thesis adviser or anyone familiar with the nominee's work. In addition to the nomination letter, the nomination packet should contain five copies of the thesis, along with a supporting letter and biography of the nominee. The nomination material must be received by Nov. 30. Previous years' nominations may be renewed or appended with an updated letter of nomination.

For more information, contact John Y. Walz, Yale University, Department of Chemical Engineering, P.O. Box 208286, New Haven, CT 06520-8286; (203) 432-4382, fax: (203) 432-4387, e-mail: john.walz@yale.edu.

Clark Nabs AGRO's Highest Honor

John M. Clark, professor of veterinary and animal science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, received the 2004 ACS International Award for Research in Agrochemicals at the 228th ACS national meeting in Philadelphia. Cosponsored by the ACS Division of Agrochemicals (AGRO) and DuPont Crop Protection, the award is based on career achievements and is the highest recognition given by AGRO.

Clark's many contributions to the study of agrochemicals include insights into the basic understanding of pesticide modes of action, resistance mechanisms, and management, as well as environmental fate and exposure assessment; he has also studied the concerns that arise as urbanization encroaches on agricultural areas. Clark has been an active member of AGRO for 28 years and has served as director of the Massachusetts Pesticide Analysis Laboratory since 1984.

In addition to a daylong symposium in his honor at the ACS national meeting, AGRO hosted an awards dinner, where Clark presented his address, "Challenges & Future of Pesticide Toxicology."

Cotton Medal Goes To Holm

Richard H.Holm, Higgins Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University, will receive the 2004 F. Albert Cotton Medal for his contributions to inorganic chemistry, especially bioinorganic chemistry. The medal consists of a gold medal, a bronze replica, and a certificate and has been awarded annually since 1995 to recognize "excellence in chemical research."

Though he is best known for his work on the nature of ferredoxins, Holm also helped to elucidate the chemistry and electronic structures of metal complexes formed by the "non-innocent" ligands of the 1,2-ethenedithiolate type during his early years at Harvard.

The Boston native received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Massachusetts and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively. Before starting at Harvard in 1980, he served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin (1965­67), MIT (1967­75), and Stanford University (1975­80).

Holm will receive the Cotton Medal at a symposium on March 3, 2005, at Texas A&M University. The medal is named for F. Albert Cotton, the W. T. Doherty-Welch Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M, and is sponsored by the ACS Texas A&M Section and the university's department of chemistry.

Applications Being Accepted For Passer Education Fund

The Dorothy & Moses Passer Education Fund, which supports grants to provide support for teachers in programs at two- and four-year colleges or universities that do not have any advanced degree programs in the chemical sciences, is now accepting applications for funding.

The awards are designed to support continuing education activities that must be directly related to the applicant's teaching and must take the individual away from his or her campus. While there is no formal application form, the application must include a description of the proposed activity and how it relates to the applicant's teaching with dates, locations, titles, and contacts; a brief description of his or her institution and department; a short curriculum vita; an itemized estimate of expenses; the amount of aid requested; and sources of all supplemental funds. The applicant must be a full-time faculty member at his or her institution. All applications are reviewed by a committee.

No support will be given for general attendance at national, regional, or local ACS meetings or for any sabbatical leave. Applications close three times each year: Jan. 1, April 1, and Sept. 1. Electronic applications are preferred. For more information, contact Donald E. Jones, 3726 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Apt. 108, Washington, DC 20008; e-mail: djones@erols.com.

The Passer Fund was established through a donation from Dorothy and Moses Passer, who was a former head of the ACS Education Division.

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