Professor Daniel G. Nocera, The Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

TIME MAGAZINE's 100
Professor Nocera also made Time Magazine's 100. Read more..

Graduate student, Darcy Wanger (Bawendi Group) has been selected to receive a Hertz Fellowship funded by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. This prestigious no-strings attached fellowship allows exceptional applied scientists and engineers the freedom to innovate. Darcy's research interests focus on solar cells and other nanoscale electronics, particularly those that are relevant for sustainable energy. She is working under the guidance of Professor Moungi Bawendi in the Chemistry department using semiconductor nanoparticle quantum dots in photovoltaic and photodetector devices.

Junior, Sid Creutz, has been named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar.The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate. Sid is majoring in chemistry and minoring in materials science. While at MIT he has done research in organic synthesis and physical chemistry in the Movassaghi and Bawendi labs, and will be working in the Cummins lab this summer researching new ligands for catalytic carbon dioxide reduction. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry.

The 2009 Pauling Medal will be awarded to Professor Stephen J. Lippard, Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry. The Linus Pauling Medal is given annually by the Oregon, Portland and Puget Sound Sections of the American Chemical Society. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to chemistry meriting national and international recognition in the spirit of and in honor of Linus Pauling, a native of the Pacific Northwest.Professor Lippard will join a list of previous eminent recipients that includes Chemistry Department's Professor John S. Waugh who received the award in 1984.

Linus Carl Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon, on February 28, 1901. He graduated from the Oregon Agricultural College in 1922 with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry engineering. Three years later he received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. After a year abroad, Dr. Pauling joined the Caltech faculty and remained there for over three decades. Following stints at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, the University of California, San Diego, and Stanford University, he established the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine at the age of 72.

Linus Pauling was a brilliant chemist and an untiring political activist who received Nobel Prizes for chemistry and peace. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1954 for his chemical research which was centered on the themes of chemical bonding and molecular structure. Published in 1939, his book entitled The Nature of the Chemical Bond remains a landmark study which is still widely read and referenced. Dr. Pauling received the 1962 Nobel Prize for Peace. The award's citation acclaimed him for his work "not only against the testing of nuclear weapons, not only against the spread of these armaments, not only against their very use, but against all warfare as a means of solving international conflicts." Dr. Pauling was the recipient of numerous other awards, including the first Pauling Medal in 1966.