Maria Fly­tzani-Stephanopou­los, Pro­fes­sor of Chem­i­cal and Bio­log­i­cal Engi­neeringat Tufts Uni­ver­si­ty, has been select­ed as the win­ner of the 2013 Michi­gan Catal­y­sis Soci­ety Guiseppe Par­ra­vano Memo­r­i­al Award for Excel­lence in Catal­y­sis Research. Pro­fes­sor Stephanopou­los will give an Award Keynote Lec­ture at the 34th Annu­al Michi­gan Catal­y­sis Soci­ety Spring Sym­po­sium, which will be held at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan-Dear­born on May 7, 2013 in Dear­born, MI.

Pro­fes­sor Stephanopou­los was cho­sen for dis­tin­guished con­tri­bu­tions to the field of catal­y­sis, par­tic­u­lar­ly new insights into the activ­i­ty of atom­ic-scale met­als as cat­a­lysts for fuel con­ver­sion process­es and “green” pro­duc­tion of chem­i­cals.

The Michi­gan Catal­y­sis Soci­ety has two awards to rec­og­nize indi­vid­u­als who have made out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to catal­y­sis research and devel­op­ment. Both awards are spon­sored by the Memo­r­i­al Trust Fund for Pro­fes­sor Giuseppe Par­ra­vano, which has been estab­lished at the Depart­ment of Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing, The Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan. The Michi­gan Catal­y­sis Soci­ety admin­is­ters both awards which are pre­sent­ed in alter­nat­ing years. Both awards con­sist of a medal and a prize of $1,000. The two awards dif­fer only in the eli­gi­bil­i­ty rules. The recip­i­ent of the award is select­ed by a com­mit­tee that is appoint­ed by the offi­cers of the Michi­gan Catal­y­sis Soci­ety.

1. The Michi­gan Catal­y­sis Soci­ety Guiseppe Par­ra­vano Memo­r­i­al Award for Excel­lence in Catal­y­sis Research
   • The award is giv­en bien­ni­al­ly in odd num­bered years to an indi­vid­ual from North Amer­i­ca to for­mal­ly rec­og­nize out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to cat­alyt­ic sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy.
2. The Michi­gan Catal­y­sis Soci­ety Par­ra­vano Award for Excel­lence in Catal­y­sis Research and Devel­op­ment
   • The award is giv­en bien­ni­al­ly in even num­bered years to for­mal­ly rec­og­nize out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to cat­alyt­ic sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy by researchers in the greater Michi­gan area. To be eli­gi­ble, a per­son must be a res­i­dent of Michi­gan or a neigh­bor­ing area such as west­ern Ontario/northern Ohio and be nom­i­nat­ed by a mem­ber of the Michi­gan Catal­y­sis Soci­ety.