Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, a professor of chemistry and the first holder of the William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, will be the American Chemical Society president in 2012 and will serve on the ACS Board of Directors during his presidential succession, which will run from 2011 to 2013.

Shakhashiri received 10 % more votes than Luis A. Echegoyen, who holds the Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry at the University of Texas, El Paso.

Shakhashiri, born in Lebanon, came to the United States in 1957 when he was 18 years. He completed undergraduate work at Boston University with an A.B. degree in chemistry, served as a teaching fellow at Bowdoin College for one academic year and then earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry at the University of Maryland. After a year of post-doctoral research and two years as a junior member of the chemistry faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana, Shakhashiri joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in 1970.
In 1977 he was the founding chair of the University of Wisconsin System Undergraduate Teaching Improvement Council. In 1983 he founded the Institute for Chemical Education (ICE) and served as its first director. His work with ICE inspired the establishment of the Center for Biology Education, the Merck Institute for Science Education, the Miami University (of Ohio) Center for Chemical Education, the Sacred Heart University SMART Center, and others.
Shakhashiri is the recipient of over 35 awards.

• Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA