Two UC Santa Barbara professors have been named recipients of the American Chemical Society's 2013 national awards for professional advancement. Peter C. Ford, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Craig J. Hawker, also a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, professor of materials, and director of the Materials Research Laboratory, have been named among the 64 award winners from across the country.
In only one other year, 1996, did UCSB have more than one winner of the American Chemical Society (ACS) awards. The awards will be presented at the national ACS meeting in New Orleans in April.
Ford is the recipient of the ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry. This award recognizes individuals who have advanced inorganic chemistry by significant service, in addition to performing outstanding research. It is sponsored by Strem Chemicals.
"I am of course very pleased and honored to have received this award from my colleagues in the American Chemical Society," said Ford. "Since this is largely in recognition of the body of work generated by my graduate and postdoctoral students and collaborators over my tenure at UCSB, I consider it an award to my research group collectively as well as another testament to the high regard in which this campus is now held. I am proud to be a Gaucho."
Hawker has been named recipient of the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry. The citation states that Hawker was nominated for transforming the field of polymer chemistry through the clever adaptation of synthetic organic chemistry concepts and the advancement of macromolecular engineering. ExxonMobil Chemical Company sponsored this award.
"I am thrilled with the award and the recognition that it brings to my students, collaborators, and co-workers, as well as to the unique research environment at UCSB," said Hawker. "The sustained success of cross-disciplinary research has been a key driver in reinforcing UCSB's international standing in the materials chemistry arena. I am grateful for the enormous benefits that this proud tradition has bought to my research."
Ford joined the faculty at UCSB in 1967 after earning his Ph.D. at Yale and completing a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship with Nobel laureate Henry Taube at Stanford University. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was a Senior Fulbright Fellow. His awards include a Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award in 1972; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior U.S. Scientist Award in 1992; the Richard C. Tolman Medal of the ACS in 1993; and the Inter-American Photochemical Society Award in Photochemistry in 2008.
Hawker received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Jean M. J. Fréchet at Cornell. In 2004, he moved from the IBM Almaden Research Center to join the faculty at UCSB. Some of his recent awards include the 2012 Centenary prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry; the 2011 Arthur C. Cope Scholar from the American Chemical Society; and the 2008 DSM Performance Materials Award from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. In 2010, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society.
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