The national officers of the NACS are elected every four years at the Board of Directors meeting. The national Directors-at-large are elected by mailed, paper ballots to all the membership prior to the Board meeting (every four years). I have asked Gary McVicker, our Vice-President, who has indicated he will not run for any future role as an officer, to lead a nominations sub-committee to prepare a slate of candidates for the positions available as officers and Directors in addition to those Club Representatives who will sit on the Board of Directors. If a current full member would like to play a more active role in the operations of the national organization they should contact Gary or me before mid-January.
John Armor
President, North American Chemical Association
Date of 2007 North American Catalysis Society Meeting
Please note on your calendars the date of the 2007 North American Catalysis Society Meeting. It will be in Houston, TX from June 17–22, 2007. Professor Kerry Dooley will be the meeting Chair. More information will follow on the NACS WebSite.
2005 Eugene J. Houdry Award to Henrik Topsøe
The 2005 Eugene J. Houdry Award in Applied Catalysis to Dr. Henrik Topsøe of the Haldor Topsøe Research Laboratories, Lyngby, Denmark. The award is sponsored by Süd-Chemie, Inc., and administered by the North American Catalysis Society. The purpose of the Award is to recognize and encourage individual contributions in the field of catalysis with emphasis on the development of new and improved catalysts and processes representing outstanding advances in their useful application.
Henrik’s work and leadership have made a significant contribution to the understanding of hydrotreating catalysts. Henrik has been an essential contributor to many commercial applications on hydrodesulfurization and other catalysts and one of the principal forces behind the position that Haldor Topsøe A/S holds in commercial deployments in catalysts and processes. “Henrik Topsøe’s work provided the concepts and definitive evidence for the CoMoS description of the synergy between MoS2 structures and Co and Ni promoters.” “His passionate efforts to bring state-of-the-art tools and concepts into the solution of complex industrial problems are without equal in the international catalysis community today.” With all this Henrik has been a prolific industrial contributor to the scientific literature. Also, “he has been a key intellectual and physical motivational force behind the emergence of the academic Danish catalysis community.”
Henrik will give a plenary lecture and be recognized at the Spring 2005 North American Catalysis Society meeting in Philadelphia. More information on this award, the awards process, and previous awardees can be found inside the Awards folder on the NACS home page: www.nacatsoc.org
Professor Matthew Neurock selected as 2005 Emmett Awardee
I am pleased to announce that Professor Matthew Neurock has been selected
for the 2005 Paul H. Emmett Awardee in Fundamental Catalysis. The award consists of a plaque and a prize. The purpose of the Award is to recognize and encourage individual contributions (under the age of 45) in the field of catalysis with emphasis on discovery and understanding of catalytic phenomena, proposal of catalytic reaction mechanisms and identification of and description of catalytic sites and species.
Professor Neurock’s interests include computational heterogeneous catalysis, molecular modeling, and kinetics of complex reaction systems. “Matt is recognized for his pioneering contributions to theoretical methods for the analysis and prediction of catalytic rates and selectivities. Matt has developed and applied theory and atomic-scale simulation in concerted and well-constructed efforts aimed at the elucidation of catalytic reaction mechanisms on metal and oxide surfaces and at understanding and designing active sites as they exist in realistic and complex reaction environments. He and his group have brought ab initio quantum mechanical methods together with kinetic Monte Carlo methods to simulate catalytic performance and the effects of the explicit reaction environment. His studies have brought fundamental insights into the roles of surface structure, crystallite size, surface coverage, alloying, condensed media, and transient intermediates.” Other’s remark that “Matt has been extremely successful at applying quantum chemical methods to a broad range of problems in surface chemistry.”
Matt will give a plenary lecture and be recognized at the Spring 2005 North American Catalysis Society meeting in Philadelphia. The Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis is sponsored by the Davison Chemical Division of W.R. Grace and Company. It is administered by The North American Catalysis Society and is awarded biennially in odd numbered years. More information on this award, the awards process, and previous awardees can be found inside the Awards folder on the NACS home page: www.nacatsoc.org
Call for Burwell Award Nominations- due by 1 December 2004
The Robert Burwell Lectureship in Catalysis is sponsored by Johnson Matthey PLC’s Catalysts and Chemicals Division and administered by The North American Catalysis Society. It is to be awarded biennially in odd-numbered years. The award consists of a plaque and an honorarium of $5,000. An additional $4,500 is available to cover travelling expenses.
The award is given in recognition of substantial contributions to one or more areas in the field of catalysis with emphasis on discovery and understanding of catalytic phenomena, catalytic reaction mechanisms and identification and description of catalytic sites and species. The Awardee will be selected on the basis of his/her contributions to the catalytic literature and the current timeliness of these research contributions. The recipient may be invited to (1) visit and lecture to each of the affiliated Clubs/Societies with which mutually satisfactory arrangements can be made and (2) prepare a review paper(s) for publication covering these lectures. Publication will be in an appropriate periodical.
Selection of the 2005 Burwell Award winner will be made by a committee of renowned scientists and engineers appointed by the President of The North American Catalysis Society. Selection shall be made without regard for age, sex, nationality or affiliation. Posthumous awards will be made only when knowledge of the awardee’s death is received after announcement of the Award Committee’s decision. Nomination packages for the Award must be received by on 1 December, 2004 and should contain the nominee’s qualifications, accomplishments, a nominating letter, a seconding letter and a biography of the nominee. A critical evaluation of the significance of publications should be made as well as a statement of the particular contribution(s) on which the nomination is based with regard to the Burwell Award description. Nomination documents should be submitted in six copies to the President of the Society along with no more than two seconding letters.
All nomination packages for the Houdry Award should be addressed to:
John Armor
President, North American Catalysis Society
1608 Barkwood Dr.
Orefield, PA 18069 USA
Abstracts now being accepted for the Philadelphia NAM
Abstracts for the 19NAM meeting, to be held 22–27 May 2005 in Philadelphia, PA, need to be submitted between 13 September and 15 November 2004. Please carefully follow instructions on the Web site (“Information for
Presenters”).
The web site is www.19nam.org
In Memoriam: Professor James Schwarz
On Sept. 26, Syracuse University Professor James A. Schwarz died earlier in the day at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse following a long illness. He was 60.
A native of New Jersey, Schwarz received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. He began his college career studying mathematics, but found his niche in chemical physics and applied chemistry. As a doctoral student at Stanford University, he participated in vitamin C research with Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling and then spent a year at Cambridge University working with renowned physicist and chemist Jack Linnett.
Schwarz spent three years in academia as a visiting scholar, postdoctoral fellow and instructor, and seven years working in the oil industry for Chevron Research and Exxon Research and Engineering. He returned to academia in 1979 when he joined ECS’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science as an associate professor. He was promoted to full professor in 1985.
Lawrence Tavlarides, professor of chemical engineering, became the chair of the department in 1981 and was Schwarz’s colleague and friend ever since. He says that Schwarz was a passionate scholar and researcher who was constantly promoting research collaboration among faculty and students. “His enthusiasm
was contagious,” Tavlarides says. “He was always engaging colleagues and students, and had a way of helping faculty go in new directions.” He mentored countless numbers of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom went on to distinguish themselves in industry, academics and the physics and chemistry communities.
Schwarz was known on national and international levels for his pioneering research on the adsorptive storage of hydrogen on carbon and catalyst preparation, and held 14 patents for his discoveries. Over the years, Schwarz received nearly $5 million in research grants and contracts, including a grant from Brookhaven Labs to research the storage of hydrogen for potential fuel cell applications. In 1988, he received a U.S. patent for Modification/Metal Assisted Carbon Cold Storage of Hydrogen (MACS). In 1990, he established the Laboratory for Advanced Storage Systems for Hydrogen within the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science to further hydrogen energy research. His lifelong research resulted in more than 225 publications.
Schwarz was awarded a Fulbright Award to study in Romania in 1997. He also received the Anaren Microwave Award for Research and the prestigious Langmuir Lectureship from the American Chemical Society. In 2002, SU awarded Schwarz the Chancellor’s Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement, one of the most prestigious awards bestowed by the University.
In the past few years, Schwarz battled serious health problems. Even with the challenges he faced, Schwarz came back and embraced his situation as a chance to expand his learning. After going through a hip replacement, he used that experience to branch out into bioengineering research. He served as director of a nanoscience laboratory at SU, continued his hydrogen research and was working on two other publications and a patent. He was also serving as the chair of the Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Schwarz is survived by his sister, Lillian Jean Panachyda of Lansdale, Pa., and by numerous colleagues and friends. A memorial service will be held Oct. 2 at 2 p.m. at the Eastern Hills Bible Church, 4600 Enders Rd. in Manlius, N.Y. A University memorial service in Hendricks Chapel will be held at a later date.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kelly Homan Rodoski
Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004 Phone: (315) 443‑3784
kahoman@syr.edu
Awards to E. Iglesia, M. Davis, W. Goodman, and I. Wachs
Enrique Iglesia has received the 2005 George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. It will be presented at the 2005 ACS Meeting in San Diego in March 2005. The award is given to recognize, encourage, and stimulate outstanding research achievements in hydrocarbon or petroleum chemistry. The recipient must have accomplished outstanding research in the chemistry of hydrocarbons or of petroleum and its products. Special consideration will be given to the independence of thought and the originality shown. Enrique Iglesia has brought together mechanistic insights into surface reactions with detailed atomic-scale characterization of inorganic solids to design advanced materials for catalytic hydrocarbon conversions.
Mark Davis of Caltech has receieved the E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry sponsored by ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company and ExxonMobil Chemical Company. This award is given to stimulate fundamental research in industrial and engineering chemistry, the development of chemical engineering principles and their application to industrial processes.
D. Wayne Goodman, Texas A&M University will receive the 2005 Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis sponsored by the Gabor A. and Judith K. Somorjai Endowment Fund. The award is to recognize outstanding theoretical, experimental, or developmental research resulting in the advancement of understanding or application of catalysis.
Israel Wachs of Lehigh University was one of two scientists selected by the ACS Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry as winners of its 2004 Langmuir Lecture Awards. Israel has worked on the surface science of supported metal oxide catalysts, where an active 2‑D surface metal oxide is dispersed on an oxide support substrate. He spoke on solid-vacuum or solid-gas interfaces at the recent Philadelphia ACS meeting in August 2004.
Call for Nominations for 2005 Eugene J. Houdry Award in Applied Catalysis
The Eugene J. Houdry Award in Applied Catalysis is sponsored by Süd-Chemie, Inc. It is administered by The Catalysis Society and is awarded biennially in odd numbered years, and it will be presented at the 2005 Philadelphia meeting of The North American Catalysis Society (NACS). The award consists of a plaque and a prize of $3,000. An additional $500 is available for otherwise unreimbursed travel expenses.
The purpose of the Award is to recognize and encourage individual contributions in the field of catalysis with emphasis on the development of new and improved catalysts and processes representing outstanding advances in their useful application.
Selection of the 2005 Houdry Award winner will be made by a committee of renowned scientists and engineers appointed by the President of The North American Catalysis Society. Selection shall be made without regard for age, sex, nationality or affiliation. Posthumous awards will be made only when knowledge of the awardee’s death is received after announcement of the Award Committee’s decision. Nomination packages for the Award must be received by on 1 October, 2004 and should contain the nominee’s qualifications, accomplishments, a nominating letter, a seconding letter and a biography of the nominee. A critical evaluation of the significance of publications and patents should be made as well as a statement of the particular contribution on which the nomination is based. Nomination documents should be submitted in six copies to the President of the Society along with no more than two seconding letters.
All nomination packages for the Houdry Award should be addressed to
John Armor
President, North American Catalysis Society
1608 Barkwood Dr.
Orefield, PA 18069 USA
Alex Mills passes away
George Alexander “Alex” Mills, Age 90 of Hockessin, DE died April 28, 2004 at Christiana Hospital in Newark. He was born March 20, 1914 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CN and became a U.S. citizen in 1942. He was a resident of Swarthmore, PA for 28 years; Bethesda, MD for 12 years; and Newark and Hockessin, DE for 20 years.
Dr. Mills was a chemist for over 40 years, making major contributions to industrial catalytic processes, particularly hydrocarbon fuels and petrochemicals including DABCO for polyurethanes. He was executive director of the Center for Catalytic Science & Technology at the University of Delaware until 1984; chief of the Coal Division Bureau of Mines; director of the Office of International Cooperation Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy in Washington, DC; and director of research at Houdry Process Corporation (Air Products) in Marcus Hook, PA.
He received the Henry H. Storch Award from the American Chemical Society; the Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists; and the E.V. Murphree Award in chemistry from Exxon Mobil Research. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He was author and co-author of 143 articles in technical publications and held 60 U.S. patents. Dr. Mills was president of the Catalysis Society of North America from 1969–73. He served as chairman of both, the Fuels Division, ACS and the Petroleum Division,ACS at different times. He was chairman of the Philadelphia Catalysis Club during the organization of the First International Congress on Catalysis (Philadelphia, 1954–56). Finally he and his work were greatly influenced by his close cooperation with Eugene Houdry.
He received a BS and an MS from the University of Saskatchewan and a PhD from Columbia University, where he studied with Nobel Prize winner Harold Urey.
Thanks to The News Journal (Delaware) at http://miva.delawareonline.com/miva/cgi-bin/miva?obits.mv+42481 and to Heinz Heinemann.