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Paul Anderson Is Priestley Medalist

Former ACS president is honored with highest award for serving chemistry

by Ann M. Thayer
June 13, 2005 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 83, Issue 24

AWARDS

Anderson
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Credit: PHOTO BY PETER CUTTS
Credit: PHOTO BY PETER CUTTS

Paul S. Anderson, retired pharmaceutical industry chemist and former president of the American Chemical Society, has been named the 2006 Priestley Medalist. The annual award, which dates back to 1923 and recognizes distinguished services to chemistry, is ACS's highest honor.

"I was obviously deeply honored and very surprised," Anderson says. The 67-year-old chemist is also appreciative, knowing the award acknowledges "all the very talented, very hardworking people I have had the privilege of working with" in his career and at ACS. "People are the essence of what makes ACS a very vital and important organization in the world of chemistry and for all of society."

Anderson's professional career spanned nearly 40 years in the pharmaceutical industry, primarily at Merck and later at DuPont-Merck Pharmaceutical and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He and the collaborators whose work he directed designed and synthesized numerous compounds that went on to become leading pharmaceutical products. At Merck, for example, Anderson was involved in projects that led to the HIV protease inhibitor Crixivan and the HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitor Sustiva.

Anderson's scientific work "combines the highest levels of creative, synthetic organic chemistry with an insightful approach to medicinal chemistry," says Ralph F. Hirschmann, a professor of bioorganic chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and a former colleague at Merck. "His work stands out for the creative way in which he reflects on the stereochemical significance of structure-activity relationships, and he deserves the highest praise for his scholarship, logic, and directness of approach."

Anderson has long been a leader in the medicinal chemistry and broader chemistry communities. He has chaired the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry and the Gordon Research Conference in the field, and served on related National Institutes of Health and National Research Council boards. In 1997, Anderson became ACS president, after having served on numerous society committees and boards, which he continues to do. For his contributions to medicinal chemistry and leadership in drug discovery, he also received the 2002 Perkin Medal, one of the U.S. chemical industry's highest honors.

In recognition of his broader contributions, Anderson received, in 2003, the National Academy of Sciences Award for Chemistry in Service to Society, which is awarded every two years. He was chosen "for his scientific leadership in two drugs approved for the treatment of AIDS and for his widely cited basic research related to the glutamate receptor." His peers consider him a remarkably productive chemist and a uniquely respected leader who has served the biomedical sciences in many ways.

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