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PHILADELPHIA, PA—3 April 2007—The American Institute of Chemists (AIC) has announced that George M. Whitesides, Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, Harvard University, will receive the 2007 AIC Gold Medal. The AIC Gold Medal will be presented at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) in an afternoon ceremony during Heritage Day on Thursday, 17 May 2007. Heritage Day is CHF’s annual celebration of achievement and promise in the chemical and molecular sciences.
“It is an honor to add George Whitesides’s name to the list of men and women of great achievement who have received the AIC Gold Medal over the past eight decades,” said Lawrence Duffy, AIC president. “George Whitesides has founded and inspired the founders of many successful companies. He has published more than 900 papers, and he inspires everyone around him with the beauty and wonder of chemistry.”
About George M. Whitesides
George M. Whitesides has made signal contributions throughout the field of chemistry and provides outstanding leadership and influence in academia, industry, and government. He is particularly noted for his unique insights into surface chemistry, including the “self-assembly” process that controls how molecules arrange themselves on a surface. These studies have laid the groundwork for advances in nanoscience, leading to new technologies in electronics, pharmaceutical science, and medical diagnostics.
Whitesides’s other research interests include biophysics, science for developing economies, the origin of life, and cell-surface biochemistry. A prolific and innovative researcher, Whitesides is the author of more than 900 research papers, and he holds more than 50 patents. A passionate educator, he has mentored and taught a large pool of talented chemists who now hold influential positions in academia and industry.
Whitesides is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious National Medal of Science (1998) and the American Chemical Society Priestley Medal (2007). His memberships include the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Chemical Society (to which he has belonged for 46 years). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Physics.
Recently Whitesides served as a member of the committee that created the National Academies’ report “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” which calls for revitalization of U.S. competitiveness in science, engineering, and technology. He has also been an advisor to the Department of Defense and has served on numerous editorial boards of major research journals.
Whitesides was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on 3 August 1939. He earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1960 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1964. He was a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1982. In 1982 he joined the Department of Chemistry at Harvard and now serves as the school's Woodford L. & Ann A. Flowers University Professor, a post he has held since 2004.
About the AIC Gold Medal
First presented by the AIC in 1926, the Gold Medal is the AIC’s highest award. It recognizes service to the science of chemistry and to the profession of chemistry or chemical engineering in the United States. Previous winners include Nobel laureates Glenn T. Seaborg and Herbert C. Brown, as well as other renowned researchers and executives representing the many facets of the world of chemistry. Recent medalists include Alfred Bader, Arnold O. Beckman, Harry B. Gray, Ralph F. Hirschmann, Robert L. McNeil, Jr., and Roald Hoffman.
About the American Institute of Chemists
Founded in 1923, the American Institute of Chemists advances the chemical sciences by establishing high professional standards of practice and emphasizing the professional, ethical, economic, and social status of its members for the benefit of society as a whole. The AIC engages in a broad range of programs for professional enhancement through the prestigious Fellow membership category, an awards program, certification programs, and meetings.
About the Chemical Heritage Foundation
The Chemical Heritage Foundation serves the community of the chemical and molecular sciences, and the wider public, by treasuring the past, educating the present, and inspiring the future. CHF maintains a world-class collection of materials that document the history and heritage of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries; encourages research in its collections; and carries out a program of outreach and interpretation in order to advance an understanding of the role of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries in shaping society.
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