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.”
Jack Driscoll receives the 2021 Henry A. Hill Award
The 2021 Henry A. Hill Award for Conspicuous Service to the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society was awarded to Jack Driscoll as announced by NESACS Chair Raj (SB) Rajur and the Henry A. Hill Award Committee.
Jack Driscoll attended Franklin Institute, Suffolk University, Boston University and Northeastern University. He is a physical chemist and a successful serial chemical entrepreneur: Founder of HNU Systems, HNU Nordion, PID Analyzers, Nova Biomedical and Sanvista Medical, whose innovations have earned him five IR100 awards and one R&D100 award.
Driscoll is credited with the commercialization of photoionization, a life-saving technology for the analysis of toxic volatile organic compounds in the workplace, that has garnered numerous product awards including an IR100 award in 1980, an R&D 100 award in 2013, which are awarded to 100 of the most technologically significant products each year. Additionally, Driscoll is the 2019 recipient of the Hach ACS National Award for Entrepreneurial Success and the 2017 Edward J. Baier Award for Significant Contributions to Industrial Hygiene (Photoionization technology) issued by the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) for the Development of the first photoionization detector for Industrial Hygienists to measure VOC’s in the workplace.
He has been awarded more than 45 US and Foreign patents as well as published over 140 technical papers and one book.
For his science and STEM education public outreach efforts in Southeastern Massachusetts which include the Cape Cod Science Café which has programmed about four events per year since 2011, Cape Cod celebrates National Chemistry Week at the Boy Scouts Wicked Cool Autumn Welcome (2013-2019, 2021) and STEM Journey (2014-2019), Jack is the 2016 recipient of the NERM E. Ann Nalley Award (2016) for volunteer service to the Northeast Region of the American Chemical Society.
Jack is a 56 year member of the ACS and was inducted into the 2015 Class of ACS Fellows. His professional service to the Northeastern Section includes chairing the NESACS Public Relations Committee since 2010, attended the weekend long ACS Sparkle Public Relations training at ACS Headquarters in D.C. in 2012 on behalf of NESACS, has chaired and organized numerous Southeastern MA subsection science cafe events, earned a ChemLuminary Award for the day-long Entrepreneurial Program hosted by NESACS and held jointly with the ACS Division of Small Chemical Businesses (SCHB) (2012), organized a NESACS meeting with special guest and Nobel Laureate, Martin Karplus (2012), was a speaker and participant that brought ACS/NESACS Entrepreneurial Programming to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston, which included 16 hours of staffed NESACS member outreach at the AAAS Family Science Days each year (2013, 2015, 2017), chaired the NESACS Southeastern Massachusetts Special Committee from 2013-present, assisted the New Hampshire area NESACS with the organization and facilitation of science cafes and technical meetings (2013, 2014, 2015), active member of the Southeastern Massachusetts Regional STEM Network (2013-present), co-organized the ACS Entrepreneurial Showcase East on behalf of NESACS (2014), earned a ChemLuminary Award for the collaboration between NESACS and the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry (ENVR) for the Wicked Cool Science Cafe-part of how Cape Cod Celebrates National Chemistry Week (2014), championed and chaired the Edwin H. Land and Instant Photography National Historic Chemical Landmark-the first Chemical Landmark in Massachusetts (2015), organized a NESACS meeting with special guest and Nobel Laureate, W. E. Moerner (2015), earned a ChemLuminary Award for Outstanding Continuing Public Relations for a Local Section (2015), hands-on activity facilitator at Science in Your Swimsuit (2017-present), organized symposia at the ACS Boston meetings in 2015 and 2018, at ACS Orlando in 2019 and ACS virtual in April 2021 that NESACS co-sponsored that were about Arthur Obermayer and the Billion Dollar SBIR, served on the Science Advisory Board at Sandwich STEM Academy and Sandwich High School (this resulted in Sandwich High School hosting STEM Journey 2017-present), guest presenter at the Sandwich High School Science Club (2018, 2019), activity provider and co-organizer at Science Sunday Funday in celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table event at the Sandwich Public Library (2019), in lieu of holding in-person events during the pandemic, NESACS Public Relations worked with The Lehigh Valley Section of ACS and co-sponsored their free virtual 12 week After School Chemistry Program (2021). Stay tuned for exciting collaborations in 2022 as NESACS Public Relations takes STEM Journey on the road for the STEM Journey Speaker Expansion Series and works with the ACS Division of History on the Henry A. Hill Legacy Preservation Project.
The award was presented virtually at the February 2022 NESACS Meeting. To read more please see the February 2022 issue of the Nucleus.
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
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, Lousiana State University
2000
James Mitchell, Lucent Tehnologies
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
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 – Hill Award – Feb 2022
NESACS Meeting – Hill Award
NESACS Meeting – Hill Award, Norris Award, US Chemistry Olympiad Team,
NESACS Meeting – Hill Award
