Chemists Among National Academy Of Sciences Honorees

Two chemists are among the 17 individuals honored by the National Academy of Sciences for their extraordinary achievements in the sciences. The winners will receive their awards during NAS’s annual meeting in April.

Louis E. Brus, the Samuel Latham Mitchill Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, is the recipient of the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences. Brus is being honored for his leading role in the development of fundamental building blocks for nanoscience, colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, and for his contributions to the understanding of the quantum effects that control their optical properties. The award, which includes $15,000 and a medal, honors innovative research in the chemical sciences that contributes to a better understanding of the natural sciences and to the benefit of humanity.

Gerald F. Joyce, a professor in the departments of chemistry and molecular biology at Scripps Research Institute, will receive the first Stanley Miller Medal, which is one part of the NAS Award for Early Earth & Life Sciences. Joyce is being honored for his pioneering experiments on the self-sustained replication and evolution of ribozymes. The Stanley Miller Medal recognizes outstanding research on early Earth and comes with a medal and a $10,000 prize.