ACS National Awards for Helma Wennemers & Peter Chen
- D-CHAB
- LOC
- Highlights
The American Chemical Society recently announced the ACS 2021 National Award winners: Helma Wennemers (LOC) receives the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award for her work in asymmetric catalysis, chemical biology and supramolecular chemistry. Peter Chen (LOC) wins the James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry for his research contribution in the field of reaction mechanisms and reactive intermediates.
Encouraging progress in chemistry, supporting research, promoting the careers of scientists and inspiring students - this is what the American Chemical Society (ACS) wants to achieve with its ACS National Awards. Only a few scientists in Europe have received such an award so far. It is therefore an outstanding achievement that in 2021, two prize winners are from the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry at ETH Zurich: Professor Helma Wennemers and Professor Peter Chen.
Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award for Helma Wennemers
Helma Wennemers, the current Chair of the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, receives the external pageArthur C. Cope Scholar Award for her overall research accomplishments, especially in the field of bioinspired asymmetric catalysts and the use of functionalized molecular scaffolds in supramolecular chemistry and chemical biology. The award is named after the US-American chemist Arthur Clay Cope who, like Helma Wennemers, spent part of his life at Columbia University. Less than a dozen Europe-based scientists have been recognized with this award in its long history (350 awardees). Helma Wennemers is the first female scientist who has pursued her entire independent academic career in Europe to win this award. “The Cope Scholar Award from the ACS means a fortune to me," Wennemers says, "my graduate training at Columbia University was very formative for me – as a scientist and as a person."
To receive this award from the American Chemical Society is an incredible honor. I am very proud of my group. Thank you all for making this happen!”Professor Helma Wennemers
The award consists of $5,000 and a $40,000 unrestricted research grant. Recipients will be honored at the fall national meeting 2021.
James Flack Norris Award for Peter Chen
Peter Chen has been a full professor at ETH Zurich since 1994 and had served as Vice President for Research and Corporate Relations 2007-2009. In his research he combines detailed physical measurements with the planning and synthesis of molecules, making it possible to design and test intuitive models of the energetics and reactivity of reactive intermediates in organic and organometallic chemistry. According to Professor Chen, the behavior of these intermediate products provides the key to the understanding and the control of the chemical process. For his accomplishments, Peter Chen receives the external pageJames Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry:
The James Flack Norris Award honors the intensive collaboration of nearly 100 students, doctoral and post-doctoral students who have accompanied my journey through reaction mechanisms and reactive intermediates. We have broken ground together.Professor Peter Chen
"For me, the award means a lot because my PhD supervisor, Jerry Berson, and my PhD “grandfather”, Bill Doering, were both award winners. It's a great honor," Peter Chen says. The award is named after James Flack Norris who was one of the first chemists to study the structure-reactivity relationship of organic compounds on a systematic basis. In 1965, the American Chemical Society established the James Flack Norris Award in his commemoration for outstanding accomplishments in the field of physical-organic chemistry. It consists of $5,000 and will be presented in spring 2021 at the ACS 2021 Spring National Meeting in Texas.