August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal for Paul Anastas and John Warner
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August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal for Paul Anastas and John Warner

Author: ChemistryViews

Paul T. Anastas (pictured left), Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA, and John C. Warner (pictured right), Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, Wilmington, MA, USA, have received the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal 2022 from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society). The award was presented at the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress in Lisbon, Portugal, on September 1, 2022. The GDCh awards the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal for special merits in chemistry to foreign chemists or to German scientists who are not chemists but who have achieved great things in chemistry.

Anastas and Warner are honored as the founders of the concept of green chemistry, for which they not only laid the scientific and intellectual foundations, but also realized concrete implementations. Over twenty years ago, the two researchers formulated twelve principles of green chemistry in their book Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice, founding the field of green chemistry, which is indispensable today, and laying the foundation for sustainable chemical product development.

In addition, the honorees have worked on the interdisciplinary integration of green chemistry at universities and actively contributed to the realization of the concept. The principles of green chemistry will be of increasing importance in the future, especially in view of the great challenges facing the chemical industry, for example, decarbonization or the regeneration of starting materials in existing material flows.

 

Paul T. Anastas

Paul T. Anastas, born in 1962 in Quincy, MA, USA, studied chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA, and at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA, where he received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry under the supervision of Robert Stevenson in 1989. He joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as Staff Chemist in 1989 and worked in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from 1999 to 2004, most recently as Associate Director for Environmental Affairs. He was Director of the Green Chemistry Institute of the American Chemical Society (ACS) from 2004 to 2006. Anastas joined Yale University in 2007 as Professor in the Practice of Green Chemistry and returned to the EPA in 2009 as Assistant Administrator of the Office of Research and Development (ORD) and Scientific Advisor to the Agency, before coming back to Yale in 2012. There, he serves as Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment and Director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering.

Among other honors, Anastas has received the Greek Chemical Society Award for Contributions to Chemistry in 2002, the inaugural Canadian Green Chemistry Medal in 2004, the Wöhler Prize from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society) in 2012, and the EPA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

 

John C. Warner

John C. Warner, born in 1962 in Quincy, MA, USA, studied chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA, and Princeton University, NJ, USA, where he received his Ph.D. in 1988. After several years at the Polaroid Corporation, he joined the University of Massachusetts as Professor in 1996. In 2007, he co-founded the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry with James Babcock. Warner also co-founded the non-profit organization Beyond Benign, which promotes green chemistry education, with Amy Cannon. Today, he also serves as Senior Vice President, Chemistry, and Distinguished Research Fellow at Zymergen Corporation, Wilmington, MA, USA, Distinguished Professor of Green Chemistry at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and Invited Professor at AgroParisTech, France.

Among other honors for Warner, the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Technical University of Berlin named the “John Warner Center for Startups in Green Chemistry” in his honor. He also received the Environmental Merit Award from the EPA in 2011, the Perkin Medal from the Society of Chemical Industry in 2014, and the Harry and Carol Mosher Award from the ACS in 2016.

Selected Publications by Paul T. Anastas

 

Selected Publications by John C. Warner

 

Also of Interest

 

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