Award Archives

ACS Women Chemists Committee (WCC)/Pfizer Emergent Leader Award

April 17, 2026/ In the News /by Meg Greenslade

Applications are OPEN!

The ACS Women Chemists Committee (WCC)/Pfizer Emergent Leader Award will sponsor eight graduate student or post-doctoral researchers to present at an award symposium during the ACS Spring 2027 Meeting in New Orleans, LA. Awardees will receive a $1,500 travel stipend to cover expenses for the meeting. They will be invited to participate in networking activities with Pfizer and WCC at the Awards Symposium Reception, the WCC Luncheon featuring the 2027 Garvan-Olin Medalist, and the Just Cocktails Reception. For more information on the award, please visit www.acswcc.org or send an email to WCC@acs.org. The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 15, 2026. Apply today!

The Women Chemists Committee Overcoming Challenges Award 2026

March 12, 2026/ In the News /by Meg Greenslade

2026 Esselen Awardee Announced

February 23, 2026/ In the News, Uncategorized /by Meg Greenslade

NATIONAL AWARD FOR CHEMISTRY IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST HONORS ADVANCES IN ENERGY STORAGE AND POWER GENERATION

HÈCTOR D. ABRUÑA IS BEING RECOGNIZED FOR HIS GROUNDBREAKING WORK IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF ELECTROCHEMICAL SURFACES REVOLUTIONIZING BATTERY AND FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGY.

Cambridge, MA — January 27, 2026 — Héctor D. Abruña, Émile M. Chamot Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology; Director, Center for Alkaline Based Energy Solutions (CABES), Energy Materials Center at Cornell and Abruña Energy Initiative, Baker Laboratory, Cornell University is being presented with the Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest for his groundbreaking contributions to electroanalytical chemistry through the innovative integration of synthetic chemistry to create novel electrode materials with advanced spectroscopic methods to interrogate their behavior. His work has fundamentally transformed the understanding of electrochemical surfaces. The insights generated by these studies have led directly to significant advances in the performance and capacity of batteries and fuel cells. In parallel with his foundational research, Professor Abruña has translated scientific discovery into real-world impact, advancing technologies that will enable the next generation of electric vehicles and aircraft.

The Abruña Energy Initiative (AEI) offers firsthand experiences in clean transportation to residents and visitors to the Ithaca campus. Through this initiative Prof. Abruña and his team provide an opportunity to experience clean transportation as part of daily life. They are establishing clean fleets with battery electric vehicles as well as hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles incorporating materials developed in the lab and providing a comprehensive infrastructure system to recharge and refuel this fleet. This living laboratory approach offers the researchers and the Cornell community real world experiences in clean transportation. In addition, AEI is working with the island community of Vieques, east of Puerto Rico, to establish a hydrogen-enabled clean power micro grid. The island, decimated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, has been without operational healthcare facilities since that time. This project aims to offer a stable electricity resource for critical infrastructure and to facilitate the island’s recovery and preparedness against future disasters. The success of this project could have wide-raging impacts for small or isolated communities around the world and provide a blueprint for scalable models.

Abruña’s basic research is being successfully commercialized through the formation of several startup companies including Factorial Energy, Ecolectro and Conamix. These companies are pushing the envelope in their respective specialties focusing on significant and scalable improvements in sustainable energy production and delivery. As Director of the Center for Alkaline-Based Energy Solutions (CABES)—a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research program, Abruña continues to advance scientific understanding of the fundamental factors governing electrochemical energy conversion in non-acidic media, exploring all aspects of the process and providing a forum for information sharing.

The Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest honors outstanding scientific achievement in scientific and technical work which contributes to the public well-being and has thereby communicated the positive values of the chemical profession. The award is presented annually by the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society and has honored such publicly renowned chemists as F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario J. Molina (effect of chlorofluorocarbons on the ozone layer), Carl Djerassi (birth-control drugs), Kary Mullis (polymerase chain reaction), Jennifer A. Doudna (genome editing) and Carolyn Bertozzi (bioorthogonal chemistry). The Esselen Award is given to honor the memory of G. J. Esselen, past chair of the Northeastern Section and founder of the Esselen Research Corporation.

In recognition of his contributions, Prof Abruña will receive the Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest on Friday, April 17, 2026, in a ceremony at the Harvard University Faculty Club, Cambridge, MA at 8pm. Dr. Abruña’s award lecture, entitled “The Energy Landscape in the Age of Sustainability.” will follow the award presentation and is free and open to the public.

WCC 2026 Merck Research Award

October 16, 2025/ In the News /by Meg Greenslade

Application Deadline, November 15
The WCC Merck Research Award recognizes eight individuals who will present their research at a
Women Chemists Committee/Merck half-day symposium during the ACS Fall 2026 Meeting in Chicago
and be recognized at the Women Chemists Committee Luncheon. Applicants in their third and fourth
year of graduate school with a research focus in one or more of the following – Organic, Medicinal,
Analytical, Chemical Biology, Computational or Structural Chemistry, and related disciplines are eligible.
This award is open to U.S. citizens (studying anywhere) and non-U.S. citizens attending a graduate
program in the U.S. or Canada. The deadline for applications is November 15, 2025. Apply today! Further
information can be reviewed here. If you have questions, send an email to WCC@acs.org.

Esselen Award Call for Nominations

September 17, 2025/ In the News /by Meg Greenslade

2025 James Flack Norris Awardees Announced

September 2, 2025/ In the News /by Meg Greenslade

Elizabeth Sterner, Philip Costanzo, and Dominik Konkolewicz to receive the 2025 James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS) will present the 2025 James Flack Norris Award to:

Elizabeth Sterner

Professor of Chemistry

Lebanon Valley College, Annville, PA

Philip J. Costanzo

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA

&

Dominik Konkolewicz

Miami University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Miami University, Oxford, OH

The Macromolecular Alliance for Community Resources & Outreach (MACRO), a joint service committee of the ACS Divisions of Polymer Chemistry (POLY) and Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering (PMSE), will be recognized at the upcoming NESACS Awards Banquet on Thursday, November 13, 2025, at Simmons University in Boston, MA. This recognition celebrates MACRO’s outstanding achievements in the teaching of chemistry and its deep, sustained impact on the polymer education community.

Founded in 2019 by Drs. Elizabeth Sterner, Philip Costanzo, and Dominik Konkolewicz, MACRO has emerged as a national leader in developing freely accessible educational, outreach, and professional development resources for polymer chemists at all career stages. Through their coordinated efforts across Curriculum, Outreach, and Professional Development, MACRO has established a robust portfolio of high-impact initiatives—from modular teaching resources aligned with ACS certification requirements to national symposia, live webinars, and a widely used repository of instructional materials on their website, macro-poly-pmse.org.

MACRO’s work is also reaching classrooms across the country. At the Spring 2024 ACS National Meeting in New Orleans, MACRO hosted a dedicated half-day session focused on K–14 education and provided funds to distribute over 100 activity kits to educators, helping bring hands-on science into classrooms. Their website continues to serve as a global resource, with more than 300 unique users in the past year, and much higher traffic during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their national ACS symposia—now four in total—have featured over 40 oral presentations and brought together educators from K–12 through higher education, private industry, and ACS leadership. These efforts have demonstrated a sustained impact on the polymer science community and are worthy of recognition with the 2025 James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry.

The James Flack-Norris Award is the first national award to recognize outstanding achievement in the teaching of chemistry. Established in 1950 by NESACS to honor the memory of James Flack Norris, Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a teacher of great repute, the award recognizes dedicated teachers of chemistry at any level whose efforts have had a wide-ranging effect on chemical education. This year’s award celebrates these three champions of chemistry education research who have had a significant impact on the advancement of student-centered, active-learning approaches for teaching in the chemical sciences and STEM more broadly.

For further information on the James Flack Norris Award, contact Lori Ferrins (l.ferrins@northeastern.edu). Additional details will be available on the NESACS website, www.nesacs.org.

Call for Nominations for the 2025 James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry

March 11, 2025/ In the News /by Meg Greenslade

Deadline: April 11, 2025

Nominations are invited for the 2025 James Flack Norris Award, which consists of a certificate and an honorarium of $3,000 and is given annually by the Northeastern Section (NESACS). The presentation will take place at a ceremony and dinner in November 2025 and will include a formal address given by the awardee(s).

The Award was established in 1950 by NESACS to honor the memory of James Flack Norris (1871-1940), a professor of chemistry at Simmons College and M.I.T., chair of NESACS in 1904, and ACS President in 1925-26.

Individuals or teams of individuals may be nominated. Nominee(s) should have served with special distinction as teachers of chemistry at any level: secondary school, college, and/or graduate school. With the presentation of the first Award in 1951, awardees have included many eminent teachers at all levels whose efforts have had a wide-ranging effect on chemical education. The recipient will be selected from an international list of nominees who have served with special distinction as teachers of chemistry with significant achievements.

A nomination in the form of a letter should focus on the candidate or candidates’ contributions to and effectiveness in teaching chemistry. Curriculum vitae should be included and, where appropriate, a list of honors, awards, and publications related to chemical education. Seconding letters may also be included; these should show the impact of the nominee or nominees’ teaching for inspiring colleagues and students toward an active life in the chemical sciences, and attest to the influence of the individual or team’s other activities in chemical education, such as textbooks, journal articles, or other professional activity at the local, national, and international level.

The nomination materials should consist of the primary nomination letter, supporting letters, and curriculum vitae. Reprints or other publications should NOT be included. The material should not exceed thirty (30) pages if nomination is for an individual or forty (40) pages if nomination is for a team of individuals and should be submitted electronically in Adobe PDF format through April 11, 2025 to Dr. Margaret Greenslade, NESACS Administrative Coordinator admin@nesacs.org. For more information about the Award including a list of past award recipients, see http://www.nesacs.org/awards_norris.html.

Questions about the Award or the nomination process should be directed to the Chair of the Norris Award Committee, Dr. Lori Ferrins, l.ferrins@northeastern.edu.