Stephen L. Buchwald, Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry, has been selected to receive the 2010 Gustavus J. Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest from the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

The Esselen Award is presented annually to recognize and reward a U.S. or Canadian chemist whose scientific and technical work has contributed to the public well being and has thereby communicated positive values of the chemical profession. Professor Buchwald’s selection recognizes his major impact on medicinal chemistry, due to his development of palladium and copper catalyzed processes to form carbon-nitrogen and carbon-oxygen bonds. These catalysts are used daily by the discovery groups of nearly every major pharmaceutical company worldwide. His catalysts have enabled the synthesis of novel promising small molecule drugs targeting a very wide range of diseases. His catalysts have also been instrumental in developing novel organic semiconductors and a wide range of other non-medicinal chemical syntheses.