Chemists Receive Top Awards

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH has announced the recipients of the 2007 National Medal of Science and the 2007 National Medal of Technology & Innovation. Five ACS members are among those selected by the federal government to receive the prestigious medals.

Given annually, the National Medal of Science honors individuals for pioneering research. The National Medal of Technology & Innovation, also awarded annually, recognizes individuals, teams, or companies for their innovative technologies.

Two ACS members are among the 2007 science laureates. They are Mostafa A. El-Sayed, a chemistry professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Physical Chemistry, and Robert J. Lefkowitz, a professor of biochemistry at Duke University Medical Center.

The other 2007 science laureates are Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, physics professor at the University of Pennsylvania; Leonard Kleinrock, professor of computer science at UCLA; Bert W. O'Malley, chair of the department of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor College of Medicine; Charles P. Slichter, physics professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Andrew J. Viterbi, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and David J. Wineland, physicist at the Boulder campus of the National Institute of Standards & Technology.

The 2007 technology laureates include three ACS members. They are Roscoe O. Brady, senior investigator at NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke; Adam Heller, chemical engineering professor at the University of Texas, Austin; and C. Grant Willson, chemical engineering professor at the University of Texas, Austin.

Paul Baran of Novo Ventures, David Cutler of Microsoft Corp., Armand Feigenbaum of General Systems Co., eBay, and Skunk Works of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics complete the list of the 2007 National Medal of Technology & Innovation recipients.

The awardees will be honored later this month in Washington, D.C.