Dr. Henry Aaron Hill (1915 – 1979)
Overview
The Henry A. Hill Award for Outstanding Service to the Northeastern Section is awarded annually to a member, to a former member, or in memory of a deceased member or former member of the Section who has made outstanding contributions to the Section’s programs and activities.The award is comprised of a plaque and a scroll suitably engraved with an appropriate citation. It is awarded annually at a regular meeting of the Northeastern Section unless otherwise specified by the Board of Directors.
About Henry A. Hill
Henry Hill was a native of St. Joseph, Missouri. He was a graduate of Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina and received a doctorate degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1942. He began a professional career in industrial chemistry in that same year, with the North Atlantic Research Corporation in Newtonville, Massachusetts. He eventually rose to become vice-president, while continuing to conduct research and development on water-based plants, fire-fighting foam, and several types of synthetic rubber. After leaving North Atlantic Research, he worked as a group leader in the research laboratories of the Dewey and Almy Chemical Company before starting his own entrepreneurial venture—National Polychemicals in 1952. Ten years later he founded Riverside Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The firm offered research, development and consulting services in resins, rubbers, textiles, and polymer reduction. Riverside Research Laboratory introduced four successful commercial enterprises, including its own manufacturing affiliate. Dr. Hill, was appointed by President Lydon Johnson to the National Commission on Product Safety and became active in research and testing programs in the fields of product flammability and product safety.
The ACS was always very close to Dr. Hill’s heart. His active career with the ACS began in the middle 1950s in the Northeastern Section. Dr. Hill served on various Northeastern Section committees, became a councilor in 1961, and was Chairman of the Section in 1963. He served the ACS in important national positions including secretary and chairman of the Professional Relations Committee, ACS Council, Policy Committee, Board of Directors and then ultimately serving as president in 1977. Dr. Henry Hill was the first African American to become president of the American Chemical Society.
He made an especially significant impact in professional policy by pioneering establishment of a set of guidelines defining acceptable behavior for employers in their professional relations with chemists and chemical engineers. This effort resulted in the ACS landmark document entitled “Professional Employment Guidelines.” In addition, the ACS Division of Professional Relations presents and annual award each year in his memory.
Craig Sergeant receives the 2025 Henry A. Hill Award
The 2025 Henry A. Hill Award for Conspicuous Service to the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society was awarded to Craig Sergeant (ceremony 2026) as announced by NESACS Awards Committee acting chair Thomas Gilbert.
Craig Sergeant has been involved with the American Chemical Society for over two decades and actively involved with the Northeastern Section since 2019. He is currently webmaster of the section’s website and editor of The Nucleus, a well known newsletter for the Northeastern Section, was councilor from 2024-2026. Professionally he worked in product management at Johnson Matthey and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Currently he is Product Marketing Manager for JEOL USA, Inc. covering the Americas since 2019.
The award will be presented at the February 2026 NESACS Meetings.
Henry A. Hill Memorial Lectureship
Presented by
The National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineer (NOBCChE)
In recognition of their many outstanding achievements NOBCChE identifies an outstanding Scientist or Engineer to be designated as the Henry A. Hill Distinguished Lecturer.
Lecturers
2026
Professor Andre K. Isaacs, College of the Holy Cross – A Click Chemistry Approach to Nitrogen Heterocycles
2025
Dr. Dorothy J. Phillips, 2025 ACS President – My Journey to Leadership in Industry and the American Chemical Society (ACS)
2024
Professor Jacqueline Smith, Bowie State University – Multicomponent Reactions in the Synthesis of New Cancer Drugs
2023
Professor Malika Jeffries-EL, Boston University – From molecules to materials: Design and synthesis of organic semiconductors for advanced applications
2022
Professor Richmond Sarpong, University of California Berkeley – Break-it-to-Make-it Strategies for Chemical Synthesis Inspired by Complex Natural Products
2021
Fikile Brushett, Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Pathways to sustainability through electrochemical technologies
2020
Cato T. Laurencin, University of Connecticut – Regenerative Engineering: A Convergence Approach for Grand Challenges
2019
LaShanda Korley, University of Delaware – Utilizing concepts of mechanics, transport, and assembly in Nature – towards responsive materials via strategic control of architecture and alignment
2018
Teri Quinn Gra, DowDuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers, District III Director – American Chemical Society
2014
Tim Williamson, Co-founder and CEO of The Idea Village
2013
Garland L. Thompson, Esq. Thompson Scribeworks
2012
Roderic Pettigrew, NIBIB
2011
Warren M. Washington, National Center for Atmospheric research
2010
Joe Francisco, Purdue University
2009
Richard Davis, BIPM
2008
James West, Johns Hopkins University
2007
Reatha Clark King, General Mills Foundation (retd.)/NACD Chair
2006
Sharon L. Haynie, E. I. DuPont Company
2005
Willie E. May, National Institute of Standards and Technology
2004
Paula T. Hammond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2003
Yetunde Taiwo, Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals
2002
Robert L. Ford, Southern University and A&M College
2001
Isiah Warner, Louisiana State University
2000
James Mitchell, Lucent Technologies
1999
Gregory H. Robinson, University of Georgia, Athens
1998
Linda C. Meade-Tollin, University of Arizona
1997
Ned Heindel, Lehigh University
1996
Lynda M. Jordan
1995
James Porter
1994
Shirley Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
1993
James Jay
1992
Sidney A. McNairy, National Institute of Health
1991
Hazel J. Shorter, DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical
1990
Jeannie Patrick Rohm & Haas Company
1989
L. Shelbert Smith
1988
W. Lincoln Hawkins, AT&T Bell Laboratories (retired)
1987
Samuel P. Massie, US Naval Academy
1986
C. S. Kiang, Georgia Institute of Technology
1984
James B. Hamilton
1982
Walter Cooper, Eastman Kodak
Previous Recipients
2025
Craig Sergeant
2023
Lori Ferrins and Jennifer Maclachlan
2022
Patrick Gordon
2021
Jack Driscoll
2020
Katherine Lee
2019
James E. Phillips [posthumously]
2018
Raj (SB) Rajur
2017
Marietta Schwartz [posthumously]
2016
Karen Piper, and James U. Piper
2015
Christine Jaworek-Lopes
2014
Mukund Chorgade
2013
Arthur S. Obermayer
2012
Michael P. Filosa
2011
Stephen Lantos
2010
Thomas R. Gilbert
2009
E. Joseph Bill
2008
Michael Singer
2007
Ruth Tanner
2006
Dorothy J. Phillips
2005
Charles E. Kolb
2004
Donald O. Rickter
2003
Doris I. Lewis
2002
Michael J. Hearn
2001
Myron S. Simon
2000
Catherine E. Costello
1999
Morton Hoffman
1998
John L. Neumeyer
1997
Mary T. Burgess, Michaeline F. Chen, and David M. Howell
1996
Alfred Viola
1995
Michael E. Strem
1994
Willam O. Foye
1993
Arlene W. and Truman S. Light
1992
Ernest I. Becker
1991
Valerie R. Wilcox
1990
James U. Piper
1989
Wallace J. Gleekman
1988
Ester A. H. Hopkins
1987
Sr. Magdalen Julie Wallace [posthumously]
1986
Arno H. A. Heyn
1985
Phyllis A. Braune
1984
G. Richard Handrick and Janet S. Perkins
1983
Arnert Lawrence Powell
1982
Robert Devereux Eddy
1981
Edward Redmond Atkinson
1980
Henry A. Hill [posthumously]
NESACS Meeting – February 2026
NESACS Meeting – February 2025
NESACS Meeting – Hill Award – Feb 2024
NESACS Meeting – Hill Award – Feb 2023
NESACS Meeting – Hill Award – Feb 2022
NESACS Meeting – Hill Award
