2019-2020 ACS CENTRAL SCIENCE DISRUPTORS & INNOVATORS PRIZE CANVASSING COMMITTEE

Professor Carolyn Bertozzi is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical & Systems Biology and Radiology (by courtesy) at Stanford University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Carolyn is also the Co-Director of Stanford ChEM-H, which draws together faculty from many disciplines with the goal of improving human health. Bertozzi has built a reputation as one of the foremost multidisciplinary scientists of her generation. She is admired for her infectious enthusiasm for science, her inexhaustible energy and her unfailing expertise and passion in the fields of chemical biology and glycoscience. Carolyn is the co-founder and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Lycia Therapeutics, OliLux Biosciences, InterVenn Bio, Palleon Pharmaceuticals, Enable Biosciences and Redwood Bioscience (acquired by Catalent in 2014). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Lilly.

Dr. Xing Chen is currently Changjiang distinguished Professor and Dean of the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Peking University.  He completed his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Tsinghua University in 2002 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from University of California, Berkeley in 2007, under the guidance of Prof. Carolyn Bertozzi and Prof. Alex Zettl.  He then joined the laboratory of Prof. Timothy Springer at Harvard Medical School as a LSRF postdoctoral fellow, where his research focused on structural immunology.  Dr. Chen started as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Peking University in 2010 and was promoted directly to Full Professor with tenure in 2016.  He is also affiliated with Center for Life Science (CLS) and Synthetic and Functional Biomolecule Center (SFBC) of Peking University.  Some of his recent awards include OKeanos-CAPA Senior Investigator Award at the Chemical and Biology Interface (2019), CCS-RSC Young Chemist Award (2018), ACS David Y. Gin New Investigator Award (2016), IGO Young Glycoscientist Award (2015), and National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2014).  His current research interest focuses on chemical glycobiology.

Naomi S. Ginsberg is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Physics at University of California, Berkeley and a Faculty Scientist in the Materials Sciences and Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Imaging Divisions at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she has been since 2010. She currently focuses on elucidating the electronic and molecular dynamics in a wide variety of soft electronic and biological materials by devising new electron and optical imaging modalities that enable characterization of fast and ultrafast processes at the nanoscale and as a function of their heterogeneities. Her background in chemistry, physics, and engineering has previously led her to observe initiating events of photosynthesis that take place in a millionth billionth of a second and to slow, stop, and store light pulses in some of the coldest atom clouds on Earth. 

Sharon Hammes-Schiffer received her B.A. in Chemistry from Princeton University in 1988 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University in 1993, followed by two years at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Since 2018, she has been the John Gamble Kirkwood Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. Her research centers on the investigation of charge transfer reactions, proton-coupled electron transfer, nonadiabatic dynamics, and quantum mechanical effects in chemical, biological, and interfacial processes. Her work encompasses the development of analytical theories and computational methods, as well as applications to experimentally relevant systems. 

Professor Craig J. Hawker is Clarke Professor and holds the Alan and Ruth Heeger Chair of Interdisciplinary Science at UCSB where he directs the California Nanosystems Institute and the Dow Materials Institute. He came to UCSB in 2004 after eleven years as a Research Staff Member at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA. Professor Hawker’s work has led to over 500 peer-reviewed papers and 75 patents with Professor Hawker helping to establish a range of start-up companies including Relypsa, Intermolecular, Olaplex, and Tricida. For his pioneering studies, Professor Hawker’s recent honors include the 2017 Charles Overberger International Prize, the 2013 American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry and the 2012 Centenary Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry. Professor Hawker has been honored with election to the Royal Society as well as being named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 2018 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Luis M. Liz-Marzán, is Ikerbasque Professor and Scientific Director of CIC biomaGUNE, in San Sebastian (Spain), since September 2012, after a long career as Professor at the University of Vigo (1995–2012). His major research activity is devoted to the design of biomedical applications based on the plasmonic properties of well-defined metal nanoparticles and nanostructures. He is well-known for his contributions to understanding the growth mechanisms of colloidal metal nanocrystals, tailoring their surface chemistry and directing their self-assembly. His current activity focuses on the application of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy to in situ monitoring of biological systems.

E.W. “Bert” Meijer is Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems of the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. After receiving his PhD degree in Organic Chemistry at the University of Groningen in 1982, he worked for 10 years in industry (Philips and DSM) on Polymer Materials. In 1991 he was appointed in Eindhoven, while he has part-time positions in Nijmegen, Santa Barbara, and Mainz. He is a member of several academies and societies, including the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), where he is appointed as Academy Professor in 2014. 

Karen L. Wooley holds the W. T. Doherty-Welch Chair in Chemistry, and is a University Distinguished Professor and Presidential Impact Fellow at Texas A&M University, with appointments in the Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering.  She also serves as Director of the Laboratory for Synthetic-Biologic Interactions.  Entrepreneurial activities have included her serving as a co-founder and President of Sugar Plastics, LLC, and Chief Technology Officer of Teysha Technologies, LTD.  Research interests include the synthesis and characterization of degradable polymers derived from natural products, unique macromolecular architectures and complex polymer assemblies, and the design and development of well-defined nanostructured materials.  The development of novel synthetic strategies, fundamental study of physicochemical and mechanical properties, and investigation of the functional performance of her materials in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, as non-toxic anti-biofouling or anti-icing coatings, as materials for microelectronics device applications, and as environmental remediation systems are particular foci of her research activities.  

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