By Dr. Sederra Ross, Associate, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

We are happy to announce the recipients of the 2023 ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Awards. These awards honor the scientific accomplishments of scientists working in green c

By EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Deputy Assistant Administrator Jennie Romer

As a sustainability expert, author, and the first-ever Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pollution Prevention at EPA, I’m thrilled to announce the opening of nominations for the 2023 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. The Green Chemistry Challenge Awards are a way for EPA to bring attention to groundbreaking scientific solutions that are making a positive impact on human health and the environment. 

By Matthew Deinhardt, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Returning to an in-person, hybrid meeting this year, we were thrilled to have an in-person Student Poster Award Competition again. While presenting at the Poster Session, students’ research was reviewed by judges for outstanding and superior research and effort in green and sustainable chemistry and engineering. Many thanks to our poster judges: Prof. Tova Williams of NC State, Prof. Alan Allgeier of the University of Kansas, and Dr. Daniela Blanco, who is the CEO of Sunthetics. The poster session and reception was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim with prizes generously provided by The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and DeGruyter.

Great Chukwudalu Umenweke of the University of Kentucky pictured with judges Pof. Bova and Prof. Allgeier (Photo Credit: Arthur Lemmon)

Over the last decade, a steady shift towards a more global pharmaceutical supply chain has occurred. Today, a significant portion of API manufacturing is carried out by contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), many located in Asian countries.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable (GCIPR), established in 2005, is a leading partnership between the ACS Green Chemistry Institute and over 40 pharmaceutical and allied companies committed to catalyzing green chemistry and engineering in the industry.

A team from Merck in Rahway, NJ is the recipient of the 2022 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry and Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry for their work, “From wood pulp to a candidate medicine: Green manufacturing technologies enable the production of investigational leukemia drug nemtabrutinib from a biorenewable commodity material.”

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute is pleased to announce the winners of the Heh-Won Chang, PhD Fellowship in Green Chemistry. This award provides international recognition for outstanding graduate student contributions to advancing the goals of green chem

By Christiana Briddell, Sr. Communications Manager, ACS Green Chemistry Institute®

The next generation of researchers is inspired and motivated to weave sustainable design into both fundamental research approaches and applied chemistry and engineering processes. The ACS Green Chemistry Institute® (GCI) offers several awards to provide recognition for outstanding student research efforts and to provide travel support so that they can gain valuable experience presenting their green chemistry research at scientific meetings.

The seven students below—two undergraduate and five graduate level—are the recipients of the 2021–2022 Hancock, Breen, and Ciba Awards. The winners were selected by a panel of voluntary judges assembled by ACS GCI.

The 2020-2021 school year was not an easy one by any means! However, many ACS Student Chapters were able to find ways to continue their activities—and 27 succeeded in still meeting the criteria to receive a Green Chemistry Award. Winning chapters included 21 chapters from the U.S. and Puerto Rico and 6 international student chapters from Nigeria, the U.K., Mexico, India and Costa Rica.

To encourage ACS members to get involved in sustainability policy issues, two ACS committees are collaborating to create a new ACS award. The ACS Committees on Environmental Improvement (CEI) and Chemistry & Public Affairs (CCPA) created a jointly-administered ACS ChemLuminary Award to encourage local sections and divisions to engage in projects that leverage ACS policy statements connected to sustainability. ACS units have the remainder of 2021 to organize and execute activities that will be eligible for consideration for the 2022 prize. ACS ChemLuminary awards recognize superlative efforts accomplished by ACS local sections, divisions, international chapters, or other ACS units.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Oilfield Chemistry Roundtable (OCR) is seeking a one-year R&D commitment to assist the Roundtable’s discovery of friction reducers and high-viscosity friction reducers that are viable alternatives to current polyacrylamide polymers used in hydraulic fracturing.

Learn more about the ACS Green Chemistry Institute student awards. Deadlines begin on October 8, 2021.

Contributed by Dr. Michal Freedhoff, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards and it’s an opportunity to celebrate a quarter century of groundbreaking scientific solutions that have and will continue to make a positive impact on human health and the environment.

That’s why I’m looking forward to joining you at the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in June to present the 2021 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards on behalf of ACS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These awards are a wonderful way for us to recognize innovation by American businesses and researchers that have redesigned chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use and manufacture of hazardous substances. These innovations help protect vulnerable communities, prevent pollution at its source, and keep U.S. businesses globally competitive by creating more sustainable products. 

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute (GCI) Pharmaceutical Roundtable honors the work of Stephen Dalby, Francois Levesque, Cecilia Bottecchia and Jonathan McMullen at Merck with the 2021 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry. The team’s innovation is titled, “Greener Manufacturing of Belzutifan (MK-6482) Featuring a Photo-Flow Bromination.”

By Prof. Dr. Jun Huang, School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, The University of Sydney Nano Institute

Q: What sparked your passion for chemistry and engineering?

A: The significance of chemical engineering for people’s lives. Chemical engineers developed 1) fertilizer production for higher agricultural productivity to feed huge populations; 2) pharmaceuticals for diseases; 3) clean fuels and energy storage for our daily life; 4) processes to provide clean water for drinking; 5) new technologies for waste disposal and recycling; and 6) greenhouse gas reduction technology for climate change. The progress and achievement of my work in chemical engineering can benefit our society and improve our quality of life, which attracts my passion for chemistry and engineering.