Four Faculty Members Receive Prestigious Chemistry Awards

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Four Northwestern University faculty members in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences -- Joseph T. Hupp, Tobin J. Marks, Amy C. Rosenzweig and Sir Fraser Stoddart -- have received honors from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Each year the society presents prizes and awards to individuals, teams and organizations from around the world for outstanding achievements advancing the chemical sciences.

Those honored at Northwestern this year and their citations are:

Joseph T. Hupp, the Morrison Professor of Chemistry in Weinberg, is the recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry Stephanie L. Kwolek Award for exceptional contributions to the area of materials chemistry from a scientist working outside the U.K. Hupp is being recognized for “key enabling discoveries in the design and syntheses of functional materials relevant to energy science applications, including light-to-electric energy conversion and supramolecular framework-based sensing, sieving, gas storage and catalysis.”

Tobin J. Marks, the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Chemistry in Weinberg, is the recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Award for outstanding contributions to pure or applied research in the field of organometallic chemistry. Marks is being recognized for “his pioneering work in organometallic chemistry, particularly with regard to catalysis as well as his work in materials chemistry from molecular sources.”

Amy C. Rosenzweig, the Weinberg Family Distinguished Professor of Life Sciences and professor of molecular biosciences and of chemistry in Weinberg, is the recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry Joseph Chatt Award for outstanding multi-disciplinary research in the areas that span inorganic chemistry and biochemistry. Rosenzweig is being recognized for “contributions to the understanding of the function of metalloenzymes, in particular particulate methane monooxygenase, and insights into copper homeostasis.”

Fraser Stoddart, the Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry in Weinberg, is recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize. The prize is awarded to outstanding chemists from overseas -- who are also exceptional communicators -- to give lectures in the British Isles. Stoddart was recognized for “developing the field of mechanical bond chemistry.”

Forty-seven previous winners of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s awards have gone on to win Nobel prizes for their pioneering work, including Harry Kroto, Fred Sanger and Linus Pauling.