ACS drops Scholars Program for students underrepresented in chemistry

The American Chemical Society is ceasing a program that awards scholarships to students from racial and ethnic backgrounds that are underrepresented in the chemical sciences. ACS announced the change on May 7, the same day that it settled a lawsuit over the program.

In March, the Virginia-based nonprofit Do No Harm, which seeks to keep identity politics out of medical education and practice, filed suit against ACS in a federal court in Washington, DC, alleging discrimination against students from certain racial backgrounds. The complaint was filed on behalf of a high school senior who met all the requirements for the ACS Scholars Program except the racial one. It argued that the program had violated the US Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

ACS had run the Scholars Program since 1995, awarding over $1 million to more than 300 students annually who were pursuing bachelor’s degrees in the chemical sciences. Many alumni are African American, Native American, Hispanic, or Latino. Each recipient was awarded up to $5,000 per academic year; more than 3,500 students had received funds from the program since its inception.

In a May 7 news release, ACS announced that it is transitioning to a new program for the 2026–27 academic year. The settlement agreement says ACS had already decided to end the race-based eligibility criteria before the lawsuit was filed.

“We are pleased that the American Chemical Society will stop discriminating based on race in its scholarships,” Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm, says in a statement posted on the group’s website. “Allowing identity politics to interfere with merit in medical education is not only a disservice to these future medical professionals, but also the patients they will serve.”

An ACS spokesperson says the organization can’t comment on the litigation. The spokesperson points C&EN to the new program’s website for information about eligibility, a timeline, and highlights of the program. (C&EN is published by ACS but is editorially independent.)

According to ACS, the goal of the new undergraduate scholarship program over the next 10 years is to support up to three times as many students as were supported in the past decade.

“The new scholarship program will deepen ACS partnerships and increase financial investment in scholarships, allowing us to empower students and further promote inclusion and belonging in the chemical sciences,” ACS CEO Albert G. Horvath says in the news release.

The new program will be distinct from ACS’s Project SEED program, which offers college scholarships to former SEED program participants based on their academic achievements, financial needs, and plans for further education in the chemical sciences.