Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

George Buchi Selected Killian Award Winner

1990 TRIBUTE

George Buchi Selected

Killian Award Winner

The 1990-91 Killian Award Lecturer is Professor George H. Buchi, one of 
the world's leading figures in organic chemistry.

The announcement of Dr. Buchi's selection as the recipient of the James 
R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award was made Wednesday (May 16) at  
the monthly faculty meeting by Professor Donald R.F. Harleman, chairman 
of the faculty selection committee.

The other committee members were Professors Leon B. Groisser, Oliver D. 
Hart, John E. Van Maanen and Uttam L. RajBhandary.

The Killian Award recognizes extraordinary professional accomplishments 
and service to MIT. It was established in 1971 as a tribute to the late 
Dr. Killian, MIT's 10th president and former chairman of the 
Corporation. The award caries an $8,000 honorarium and its recipient 
usually delivers two lectures in the spring term of the award year.

The committee's citation credited Dr. Buchi, Camille and Henry Dreyfus 
Professor of Chemistry, "with contributions in photochemistry, natural 
products, and molecular toxicology which comprise cornerstones of these 
diverse areas of organic chemistry."

It added: "His creativity and style in organic chemistry have inspired 
fundamental work by others, and his laboratory has attracted many 
outstanding students and postdoctoral associates. A measure of the high 
personal regard for his research and mentorship is the establishment in 
1988 of the George H. Buchi Lectureship in Chemistry with endowment 
support from his former coworkers and friends. . .

"Buchi's research achievements in organic chemistry have spawned 
developments having lasting fundamental importance and practical 
benefits as well. For the past four decades he has made contributions in 
the areas of organic photochemistry, structure and synthesis of natural 
products, and molecular toxicology. His pioneering work on light-
catalyzed organic reactions in the early 1950s opened up an area of 
investigation that has yielded insight into the relationships between 
electronic structure of molecules and chemical reactivity. Modern 
organic photochemistry can be traced to Bchi's pathmaking work at MIT. 
. ."

Professor Buchi was born in Baden, Switzerland, in 1921. He received a 
diploma in chemical engineering in 1945 from Eidgenossische Technische 
Hochschule in Zurich and the DSc degree in 1947. He was a Firestone 
Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago from 1948-1951, when he 
came to MIT as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry. He 
was promoted to associate professor in 1956 and to professor in 1958. In 
1971 he was appointed to the Dreyfus chair, established in memory of Dr. 
Camille Dreyfus, a Swiss-born chemist who, with his brother, Henry, 
pioneered in polymer research and founded the Celanese Corporation.

Dr. Buchi has received several important honors and awards and has held 
many distinguished lectureships. The American Chemical Society has 
recognized his work with two national awards, first in 1958 with the 
Fritzsche Award and again in 1973 with the Award for Creative Work in 
Synthetic Organic Chemistry. He has received honorary doctorates from 
the University of Heidelberg and ETH. In 1986 the government of Japan 
honored him with its Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck 
Ribbon, for promoting mutual understanding and friendship with that 
country through the teaching and guidance of Japanese scientists who 
have come to his laboratory as postdoctoral associates.

Professor Buchi is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of 
the American, German, Japanese and Swiss Chemical Societies. He also is 
a Fellow of the Chemical Society (London) and Honorary Foreign Member of 
the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.

He is an avid outdoorsman, active in hiking, fishing, hunting and 
skiing.

The Killian committee's citation quoted one of his colleagues as saying, 
"Buchi is one of the best scientists at MIT, and one of the most human."

The citation concluded: "George H. Buchi, MIT faculty member for nearly 
40 years, has set an unprecedented standard in organic chemistry. His 
contributions in research and education have added to the quality of 
life globally, and his colleagues and students have derived direct 
benefit from his wisdom, dedication to excellence, and friendship."