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Willard Gibbs Award
The Chicago Section of the ACS awards one of the most prestigious honors in chemistry, the Willard Gibbs award.
(See also the Wikipedia entry we maintain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Gibbs_Award)
The Willard Gibbs Award was founded in 1910 by William A. Converse (1862-1940), a former Chairman and Secretary of the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society. The medal was named for Professor Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903) of Yale University. Gibbs, whose formulation of the Phase Rule founded a new science, is considered by many to be the only American born scientist whose discoveries are as fundamental in nature as those of Newton and Galileo.
The purpose of the award is "To publicly recognize eminent chemists who, through years of application and devotion, have brought to the world developments that enable everyone to live more comfortably and to understand this world better." Medalists are selected by a national jury of eminent chemists from different disciplines. The nominee must be a chemist who, because of the preeminence of his work in and contribution to pure or applied chemistry, is deemed worthy of special recognition.
The award consists of an eighteen-carat gold medal having, on one side, the bust of J. Willard Gibbs, for whom the medal was named. On the reverse is a laurel wreath and an inscription containing the recipient's name.
Given annually for over one hundred years, the recipients span three-quarters of a century of chemistry. Most of the names are familiar to chemists regardless of specialty. This fame may result from later recognition, including, in many cases, the Nobel Prize, or the reason may be that textbooks have permanently associated many of these names with classic reactions or theories.
Mr. Converse supported the award personally for a number of years, and then established a fund for it in 1934 that has subsequently been augmented by the Dearborn Division of W. R. Grace & Co. When Betz purchased the Dearborn/Grace division, the BetzDearborn Foundation had most generously continued the historic relationship between the Section and Dearborn. J. Fred Wilkes and his wife have also made considerable contributions to the award. However, since General Electric purchased Betz/Dearborn these companies are no longer contributing to the Willard Gibbs Medal Fund. Anyone wishing to contribute to this award should contact the Chicago Section of the ACS.
Winners of the Willard Gibbs Award
- Svante Arrhenius 1911
- Theodore William Richards 1912
- Leo H. Baekeland 1913
- Ira Remsen 1914
- Arthur Amos Noyes 1915
- Willis R. Whitney 1916
- Edward W. Morley 1917
- William M. Burton 1918
- William A. Noyes 1919
- F. G. Cottrell 1920
- Mme. Marie Curie 1921
- No award 1922
- Julius Stieglitz 1923
- Gilbert N. Lewis 1924
- Moses Gomberg 1925
- Sir James Colquhoun Irvine 1926
- John Jacob Abel 1927
- William Draper Harkins 1928
- Claude Silbert Hudson 1929
- Irving Langmuir 1930
- Phoebus A. Levene 1931
- Edward Curtis Franklin 1932
- Richard Willstätter 1933
- Harold Clayton Urey 1934
- Charles August Kraus 1935
- Roger Adams 1936
- Herbert Newby McCoy 1937
- Robert R. Williams 1938
- Donald Dexter Van Slyke 1939
- Vladimir Ipatieff 1940
- Edward A. Doisy 1941
- Thomas Midgley, Jr. 1942
- Conrad A. Elvehjem 1943
- George O. Curme, Jr. 1944
- Frank C. Whitmore 1945
- Linus Pauling 1946
- Wendell M. Stanley 1947
- Carl F. Cori 1948
- Peter J. W. Debye 1949
- Carl S. Marvel 1950
- William Francis Giauque 1951
- William C. Rose 1952
- Joel H. Hildebrand 1953
- Elmer K. Bolton 1954
- Farrington Daniels 1955
- Vincent du Vigneaud 1956
- W. Albert Noyes, Jr. 1957 (son of William A. Noyes)
- Willard F. Libby 1958
- Hermann I. Schlesinger 1959
- George B. Kistiakowsky 1960
- Louis Plack Hammett 1961
- Lars Onsager 1962
- Paul D. Bartlett 1963
- Izaak M. Kolthoff 1964
- Robert S. Mulliken 1965
- Glenn T. Seaborg 1966
- Robert Burns Woodward 1967
- Henry Eyring 1968
- Gerhard Herzberg 1969
- Frank H. Westheimer 1970
- Henry Taube 1971
- John T. Edsall 1972
- Paul John Flory 1973
- Har Gobind Khorana 1974
- Herman F. Mark 1975
- Kenneth S. Pitzer 1976
- Melvin Calvin 1977
- W. O. Baker 1978
- E. Bright Wilson 1979
- Frank Albert Cotton 1980
- Bert Lester Vallee 1981
- Gilbert Stork 1982
- John D. Roberts 1983
- Elias J. Corey 1984
- Donald J. Cram 1985
- Jack Halpern 1986
- Allen J. Bard 1987
- Rudolph A. Marcus 1988
- Richard B. Bernstein1989
- Richard N. Zare 1990
- Günther Wilke 1991
- Harry B. Gray 1992
- Peter B. Dervan 1993
- M. Frederick Hawthorne 1994
- Sir John Meurig Thomas 1995
- Fred Basolo 1996
- Carl Djerassi 1997
- Mario J. Molina 1998
- Lawrence F. Dahl 1999
- Nicholas Turro 2000
- Tobin J. Marks 2001
- Ralph Hirschmann 2002
- John I. Brauman 2003
- Ronald Breslow 2004
- David A. Evans 2005
- Jacqueline K. Barton 2006
- Sylvia T. Ceyer 2007
- Carolyn R. Bertozzi 2008
- Louis Brus 2009
- Maurice Brookhart 2010
- Robert G. Bergman 2011
- Mark A. Ratner 2012
- Charles M. Lieber 2013
- John E. Bercaw 2014
- John F. Hartwig 2015
- Laura L. Kiessling 2016
- Judith Klinman 2017
- Cynthia J Burrows 2018
- Marcetta Y. Darensbourg 2019
- Zhenan Bao 2020