ACS Award in Chemical Education
Memorial Lecture, UC Berkeley
Undergraduate Award, UC Berkeley
Matrix Isolation Prizes

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American Chemical Society
George C. Pimentel Award 
in Chemical Education

Formerly known as the ACS Award in Chemical Education, it was renamed the George C. Pimentel Award after his death in 1989. An exception was made to the rule against posthumous awards, and his daughter Jan Coonrod accepted the award in his name at the 1990 awards ceremony during the ACS meeting.
The award is currently sponsored by Cengage Publishing.

2011 William R. Robinson Purdue University 2010 Zafra Lerman Columbia College 2009 Henry W. Heikkinen University of Northern Colorado 2008 Richard N. Zare Stanford University 2007 A. Truman Schwartz Macalester College 2006 F. Albert Cotton Texas A&M University 2005 James N. Spencer Franklin & Marshall College 2004 Nicholas J. Turro Columbia University 2003 George M. Bodner Purdue University 2002 Michael P. Doyle University of Arizona 2001 Harry B. Gray California Institute of Technology 2000 Jerry A. Bell American Chemical Society 1999 Mary Virginia Orna College of New Rochelle 1998 Stanley G. Smith University of Illinois 1997 Arthur B. Ellis University of Wisconsin 1996 Roald Hoffmann Cornell University 1995 Ernest L. Eliel University of North Carolina 1994 Glenn T. Seaborg University of California, Berkeley 1993 George B. Kauffman Fresno State University 1992 Fred Basolo Northwestern University 1991 John W. Moore University of Wisconsin 1990 George C. Pimentel University of California, Berkeley

Prior awardees (of the ACS Award in Chemical Education):

1989 Joseph J. Lagowski 1970 Hubert N. Alyea 1988 Marjorie H. Gardner 1969 L. Carroll King 1987 Linus Pauling 1968 William F. Kieffer 1986 Bassam Z. Shakhashiri 1967 Louis F. Fieser 1985 Glenn A. Crosby 1966 W. Conway Pierce 1984 Arthur W. Adamson 1965 Theodore A. Ashford 1983 Michell J. Sienko 1964 Alfred B. Garrett 1982 Anna J. Harrison 1963 Edward L. Haenisch 1981 Derek A. Davenport 1962 William G. Young 1980 Henry A. Bent 1961 John C. Bailar, Jr. 1979 Gilbert P. Haight, Jr. 1960 Arthur F. Scott 1978 Lloyd N. Ferguson 1959 Harry F. Lewis 1977 Robert W. Parry 1958 Frank E. Brown 1976 Leallyn B. Clapp 1957 Norris W. Rakestraw 1975 William T. Lippincott 1956 Otto M. Smith 1974 George S. Hammond 1955 Gerrit Van Zyl 1973 Robert C. Brasted 1954 Raymond E. Kirk 1972 J. Arthur Campbell 1953 Howard J. Lucas 1971 Laurence E. Strong 1952 Joel H. Hildebrand

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George C. Pimentel Memorial Lecture
Chemistry Department, UC Berkeley
Sponsored by IBM

This award allows the Department to invite a distinguished speaker to present a special lecture in the physical chemistry seminar series. It was initiated by Joseph M. Jazinski, of IBM Research Center.

2011-12 2010-11 Robin Hochstrasser University of Pennsylvania 2009-10  Dudley Herschbach Harvard University 2008-09 Sumio Iijima Meijo University, Japan 2007-08 Geraldine Richmond University of Oregon 2006-07 Charles M. Lieber Harvard University 2005-06 Manfred Eigen Max Planck Institute, Germany 2004-05 Sir David King Cambridge University, UK 2003-04 Wilson Ho University of California, Irvine 2002-03 Louis Brus Columbia University 2001-02 Mario Molina Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2000-01 C. Bradley Moore Ohio State University 1999-2000 Takeshi Oka University of Chicago 1998-99 Charles S. Parmenter Indiana University 1997-98 John Simon Oxford University, UK 1996-97 Ahmed H. Zewail California Institute of Technology 1995-96 Ian Carrington Southampton University, UK 1994-95 Carl Sagan Cornell University 1993-94 William C. Lineberger University of Colorado 1992-93 Richard N. Zare Stanford University 1991-92 William G. Klemperer Harvard University

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George C. Pimentel Award
College of Chemistry, UC Berkeley

In 2002, the College of Chemistry established the George C. Pimentel Award, to encourage undergraduate research. It is given to a graduating senior in chemistry who is a first-generation college student and who plans to go on to graduate study in science-related fields. Started modestly with discretionary funds from the Dean of the College of Chemistry, it will grow as donations increase the endowment.

The first award was given at Commencement, 2002, to Victor Tam, a student from a small town in California's Central Valley-as George was. He went on to do graduate work at UC San Diego. 

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The 2003 award went to Cesar Napoleon Mejia. His family is originally from Nicaragua; he graduated from Bell High School in Southern California, where he was valedictorian.  His research was on excited states of bromine-containing molecules of atmospheric significance, with Professor Martin Head-Gordon as his advisor. After graduation he was accepted as an intern at NASA-Ames Research Center.

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The 2004 recipient of the award was Irena Dragojevic.  An immigrant from Serbia, she had to master English before being accepted at UC Berkeley, where she did undergraduate research with Professors Herb Strauss, Luciano Moretto, and Heino Nitsche.  She went on to do graduate work at UCLA in nuclear chemistry.

The 2005 award winner is Zaihleen Shariff Keller. who is from Canada; her Indian parents emigrated there from Kenya. She did undergraduate work with Ahamindra Jain on synthesis of a compound for possible use in cancer treatment, and she also mentored other students. She is considering medical school as one of several graduate options.

The winner of the 2006 award is Lok Him Yu, who also worked with Ahamindra Jain. He did two research projects, one on inhibitors of flu virus infection, and another on developing agents for imaging and treatment of prostate cancer; he also trained other students. He plans to work for a pharmaceutical company before going to grad school in chemical biology. Born in Hong Kong, he came to California at the age of seventeen with his family.

The 2007 award goes to Dylan Arias, who did research with Professor Ron Cohen on atmospheric chemistry. He also participated in the College of Chemistry Scholar's Program and became an articulate and invaluable student tutor. He graduated from Edison High School in Fresno, and will pursue graduate studies at Massachusetts institute of Technology in Fall 2007.

Huiyang Winnie Liang is the winner of the 2008 award. She came to San Francisco from China with her family in 1996, and graduated from Galileo High School. Her undergraduate research was in Professor Paul Alivisatos's group, working with graduate student Shelley Claridge, on isolation of discrete nanoparticle-conjugates using anion exchange HPLC. She will spend the next year at the National Institutes of Health, as an intern, working on malaria-related projects, and applying to graduate school in chemical biology.

Raja Ravinel Narayan is the winner of the 2009 award. His father came from Fiji and settled in Union City, California. Raja did undergraduate research with Professor Richmond Sarpong, on synthesizing analogs of the molecule lyconadin A, which potentially could be used in treating disease; he is currently applying to medical schools.

Raja Ravinel Narayan

The winner of the 2010 award is Jingwei Zhang, who comes from Shanghai, China, and majored in Chemical Biology at UC Berkeley. His undergraduate research, supervised by Professor Judith Klinman, lies in the field of enzymology, studying the role of protein dynamics in enzyme catalysis. He will be returning to UC Berkeley to pursue graduate studies in Bioengineering.

Bao Tran Ngoe Truong is the winner of the 2011 award. Born in Vietnam, she went to high school in Singapore, where she won a scholarship to UC Berkeley. She worked in Professor Jean Fréchet’s group on self-healing hydrogels with dendritic molecular binders, and then on SiRNA delivery systems. For the next year she is working as a research engineer at the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences in Singapore, before going to graduate school at Stanford University.

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George C. Pimentel Prizes for Advances in Matrix Isolation

This was awarded for the first time in 2005, at the international meeting of the Matrix Conference, in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, marking the 50th anniversary of Pimentel's invention of the matrix isolation technique. Awarded by the Organizing Committee of MATRIX 2005 and the Association of the Matrix-Isolation World Community, the main prize recognizes outstanding contributions to matrix isolation spectroscopy. It was first proposed by Werner Klotzbuecher, editor of the MIDE newsletter. The award is in the form of a certificate together with a cash prize 1500 Euros, and a unique figure from the Lichtenberg collection. 

There is also an award for the Best Poster presented at the meeting, sponsored in 2005 by the Portuguese Chemical Society. This award is in the form of a certificate together with a cash prize of 250 Euros, and a medal. The major criteria for selecting the winner are the scientific content and originality of the work, the potential impact, and the clarity of the poster. While not restricted to students, this award obviously encourages student participation, in the Pimentel tradition.


The winner of the main 2005 award was:

Marilyn Jacox, Senior Scientist (retired) of INISTE, who at one time worked closely with Professor Pimentel and his graduate student, the late Dolphus Milligan. Dr. Jacox was not at the conference, but she sent a slide that she used in lectures, of George Pimentel's portrait with a definition of the matrix isolation technique (click here for slide).

The second finalist was:
Lester Andrews, Professor, University of Virginia, who was a graduate student with George Pimentel.

The third finalist was: 
Markuu Räsänen, Professor, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.|

The winner of the Best Poster award was:
Antii Lignell, of Markuu Räsänen's research group.

The 2007 prize was awarded to Dr. Lester Andrews, of the University of Virginia, at the Gordon Research Conference on Matrix-Isolated Species, at Bates College, Maine, USA

The award is given biennially.

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