WINNERS

We celebrate your achievements and thank you for advancing the chemical enterprise and making a positive impact in your organizations, communities, and society.

2023 E. Bright Wilson Award
2023 E. Bright Wilson AwardDavid Jonas - University of Colorado-Boulder
2023 ACS Award in Theoretical Chemistry
2023 ACS Award in Theoretical ChemistryNancy Makri, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2023 Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science and Technology
2023 Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science and TechnologyMarcos Dantus, Michigan State University
2023 Nakanishi Prize
2023 Nakanishi PrizeGilad Haran, Weizman Institute of Science, with I. Riven
2023 ACS Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution
2023 ACS Award for Research at an Undergraduate InstitutionMaria A. Gomez, Mount Holyoke
2023 Marsha I. Lester Award for Extraordinary Impact in Physical Chemistry
GEORGE SCHATZ, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY –
“For broad-ranging contributions to leadership in physical chemistry, and to advances in reaction dynamics, plasmonics, self-assembly of soft materials, and other fields.”

2023 Jack Simons Award in Theoretical Chemistry
ANNE MCCOY, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON –
“For her development and application of theoretical methods for analyzing the vibrational spectra & dynamics of floppy molecules and clusters.”
2023 Early Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
SURI VAIKUNTANATHAN, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO –
“For the development of powerful non-equilibrium statistical mechanical theories to understand the behavior of complex matter ranging from driven systems to biological self-assembly.”
2023 Senior Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
STEPHEN BRADFORTH, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-
“For applying femtosecond and photoelectron spectroscopies to elucidate electronic interactions that guide chemical reaction dynamics in the condensed phase.”
2023 The Richard Van Duyne Early Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
JOSH VURA-WEIS, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN-
“For development of the experimental and theoretical foundation of tabletop femtosecond extreme ultraviolet spectroscopy of photocatalysis.”
2022 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
ARUN YETHIRAJ – UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
“For his original theoretical contributions to the understanding of complex fluids and (bio)polymers, as well as the development of novel computational models for these systems.”
2022 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
TIANQUAN “TIM” LIAN – EMORY UNIVERSITY
“For pioneering contributions to the in situ time-resolved spectroscopic studies of interfacial structure and charge transfer dynamics of nanomaterials, electrodes and photoelectrodes for energy conversion.”
2022 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
MICHELE PAVANELLO – RUTGERS UNIVERSITY NEWARK
“For the development of novel methods to accelerate calculations for large systems composed of weakly interacting subsystems, such as the molecules in liquid water.”
2022 Richard Van Duyne Award
NAN JIANG – UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
“For developing angstrom scale analytical methods to address single-molecule chemistry via tip‐enhanced spectroscopy and scanning optical microscopy.”
2021 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. NANCY MAKRI – UIUC
“For the development of exact methods for long-time numerical path integral simulations of quantum dissipative systems with application to quantum liquids, electron transfer and photosynthesis.”
2021 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. GREG V. HARTLAND – NOTRE DAME
“For his contribution to understanding the fundamental properties of metal nanostructures, and for the development of novel experimental techniques to study single particles.”
2021 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. THOMAS MARKLAND – STANFORD
“For the development and application of methods to efficiently treat ground and excited state quantum dynamics in condensed phase systems. “
2021 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. MIRIAM FREEDMAN – PSU
“For characterizing the changes to phase transitions with droplet size in atmospheric particles and the role of surface properties in heterogeneous ice nucleation.”
2020 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. DAVID YARKONY – JOHNS HOPKINS
“For his work demonstrating the significance and properties of conical intersections of two or more adiabatic electronic states.”
2020 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. LIN X. CHEN – NORTHWESTERN & ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB
“For fundamental contributions to the elucidation of excited state structures, dynamics and energetics of light harvesting systems through ultrafast X-ray and vis/IR transient absorption spectroscopy.”
2020 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. ANASTASSIA N. ALEXANDROVA – UCLA
“For the development of theory of catalysis on dynamic heterogeneous interfaces based on statistical ensembles of metastable states, and applications to surface-supported catalytic clusters.”
2020 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. NAOMI S. GINSBERG – UC-BERKELEY
“For the development of new time- and space-resolved imaging and spectroscopy methods to study dynamical phenomena in heterogeneous materials.”
2019 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. LAURA GAGLIARDI – UNIV. OF MINNESOTA
“For her contributions to the development of quantum chemical methods and their application to multireference systems containing metals, relevant to catalysis, and excited states.”
2019 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. GILAD HARAN – WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
“For his pioneering development of single-molecule methods that shed new light on protein folding and dynamics and on plasmonic interactions with molecules.”
2019 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. FRANK NOE – FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN
“For pioneering development of innovative methods for computational biophysics, especially Markov state modeling and its applications to challenging protein simulation and the sampling problem.”
2019 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. HAITAO LIU – UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
“For his research on the intrinsic surface properties of carbon materials and DNA-mediated surface reactions.”
2018 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
DR. ARTHUR F. VOTER – LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
“For pioneering the development of accelerated molecular dynamics methods and their application to key problems in physical chemistry and materials science”
2018 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. ARTHUR G. SUITS – UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
“For experimental innovation in chemical reaction dynamics including DC slice velocity map imaging, and application of these techniques to reveal the roaming radical mechanism”
2018 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. CLEMENCE CORMINBOEUF – ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE
“For her development of novel methods and conceptual tools and their implementation and application to organic systems.”
2018 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. EMILY A. WEISS – NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
“For pioneering contributions to the study and control of interfacial processes in colloidal nanocrystals, and of charge transport in low-conductivity materials by ‘electron ratcheting’.”
2017 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. DAVID REICHMAN – COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
“For the pioneering development of microscopic predictive and unified theories of the classical behavior of disordered materials and quantum behavior of ordered materials.”
2017 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. KIT BOWEN – JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
“For seminal studies of molecular and cluster anions by negative ion photoelectron (photodetachment) spectroscopy.”
2017 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. LASSE JENSEN – PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
“For the development of hybrid atomistic electrodynamic quantum mechanical models for understanding surface-enhanced Raman scattering.”
2017 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. WEI MIN – COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
“For seminal contributions to visualize small molecules by coherent Raman microscopy, which has wide application in biomedical imaging.”
2017 ACS Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. PETER PULAY – UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
2017 E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy
PROF. DAVID NESBITT – JILA AND UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
2017 Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry
PROF. BRUCE BERNE – COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
2017 ACS Award in the Chemistry of Materials
PROF. DOUGLAS KESZLER – OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
2017 Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science & Technology
PROF. STEPHEN LEONE – UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
2017 Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical & Experimental Chemistry of Liquids
PROF. SALVATORE TORQUATO – PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
2016 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. DAVE THIRUMALAI – THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
“For outstanding contributions to physical and biophysical chemistry, especially work on protein and RNA folding, protein aggregation, and effects of molecular crowding in cells.”
2016 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. SCOTT ANDERSON – UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
“For exceptional creativity in the design, construction and exploitation of instrumental methods that bring clear pictures of complex chemistry.”
2016 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. FRANCESCO PAESANI – UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
“For his development of a rigorous theoretical method for simulating aqueous systems from the gas to the condensed phase, with chemical and spectroscopic accuracy.”
2016 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. CHRISTY LANDES – RICE UNIVERSITY
“For integrating super-resolution single-molecule techniques and information theory to contribute new discoveries in biological and chemical separations at the molecular scale.”

2016 ACS Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. ROBERTO CAR – PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
2016 E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy
PROF. ROBERT GRIFFIN – MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
2016 Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry
PROF. MARK RATNER – NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
2016 Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical & Experimental Chemistry of Liquids
PROF. KENNETH SCHWEIZER – UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
2016 Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science & Technology
PROF. ANDREI TOKMAKOFF – UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
2016 Irving Langmuir Award
PROF. GEORGE SCHATZ – NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
2016 ACS Award in the Chemistry of Materials
PROF. JEAN-LUC BREDAS – KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2015 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. HORIA METIU – THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA
“For outstanding contributions to the development of the theory of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and plasmonics and the time-dependent quantum theory of molecular dissociation.”

2015 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. MITCHIO OKUMURA – CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
“For scientific contributions serve as benchmark data to constrain climate models that describe the current state and future evolution of Earth’s atmosphere.”

2015 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. THOMAS F. MILLER – CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
“For his development of dynamics, electronic structure, and statistical mechanical methods to elucidate the reactivity of biological and inorganic catalysts.”

2015 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. CHRISTOPHER JARONIEC – OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
“For the development and application of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance methods in the study of structure and mechanism in complex biological assemblies.”

2015 ACS Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. MARK GORDON – IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY, AMES, IOWA, USA
2015 E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy
PROF. R. J. DWAYNE MILLER – MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF MATTER, HAMBURG, GERMANY
2015 Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry
PROF. SUNNEY XIE – HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, USA
2015 Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical & Experimental Chemistry of Liquids
PROF. MARK MARONCELLI – PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA, USA
2015 Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal
PROF. ANGELA K. WILSON – UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS, DENTON, TEXAS, USA
2015 ACS Award in Pure Chemistry
PROF. ADAM COHEN – HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, USA
2015 Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science & Technology
PROF. SHAUL MUKAMEL – UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, USA
2014 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. DOUGLAS J. TOBIAS – THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
“For theoretical studies that have revealed new and unexpected aspects of ions at interfaces and membrane-bound proteins, and their impacts on atmospheric and biological systems.”

2014 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. VARTKESS A. APKARIAN – THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
“For experiments that visualize the real-time making and breaking of bonds in solids, liquids and quantum liquids.”

2014 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. FILIPP U. FURCHE – THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
“For the development of electronic structure methods and efficient computer programs enabling predictive simulations of small-gap compounds and electronically excited states.”

2014 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. PENG CHEN – CORNELL UNIVERSITY
“For his use of single-molecule fluorescence imaging that pushes the frontiers of our understanding of the spatiotemporal catalytic properties of single nanoparticles.”

2014 ACS Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. AXEL BECKE – DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY, HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA
2014 E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy
PROF. RICHARD VAN DUYNE – NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, USA
2014 Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry
PROF. HENRY F. SCHAEFER III – THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, ATHENS, GEORGIA, USA
2014 Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical & Experimental Chemistry of Liquids
PROF. JACK H. FREED – CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, NEW YORK, USA
2014 Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics
PROF. MARK A. JOHNSON – YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, USA
2014 Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal
PROF. MARSHA I. LESTER – UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, USA
2014 ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences
PROF. RIGOBERTO HERNANDEZ – GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA
2014 Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science & Technology
PROF. MICHAEL D. FAYER – STANFORD UNIVERSITY, PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, USA
2013 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. GREGORY A. VOTH – THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY
“For the development and application of powerful new theoretical and computational methods in the study of biomolecules, liquids, materials, and quantum mechanical systems.”

2013 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. DANA D. DLOTT – THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
“For experimental techniques and measurements that advance our understanding of vibrational energy in molecules and materials.”

2013 Early-Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. ALÁN ASPURU-GUZIK – HARVARD UNIVERSITY
“For his pioneering contributions to the intersection of quantum information and chemistry. In particular, quantum computing for chemistry and ultrafast quantum process tomography.”

2013 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. LIBERATO MANNA – ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
“For the use of physical chemistry tools and approaches to create and control the properties of inorganic nanocrystals.”

2012 Award in Theoretical Chemistry
PROF. ANNA KRYLOV – THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
“Prof. Krylov’s research focuses on the development of electronic structure methods for electronically excited and open-shell species in both the gas and condensed phases.”

2012 Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry
PROF. BOB CONTINETTI – THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO
“His research group is interested in measuring and understanding the dynamics and energetics of transient species in the gas phase using photoelectron, photofragmentation and translational spectroscopic.”