Category: Awards
2012 IUPAC-Richter Prize Awarded
Professor Stephen Hanessian is awarded the 2012 IUPAC-Richter Prize
The 2012 IUPAC-Richter Prize in Medicinal Chemistry has been awarded to Prof. Stephen Hanessian, holder of the Isis Pharmaceutical Research Chair at the University of Montreal.
Prof. Hanessian received this year’s award for his outstanding achievements in natural product chemistry, his Chiron Approach to chiral compound synthesis, and his many seminal contributions that have facilitated the synthesis and discovery of medicinally active compounds and novel drug prototypes.
The IUPAC-Richter Prize, comprising a plaque and a cheque for USD 10,000, will be presented on May 21, 2012, at the 33rd ACS National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium in Tucson, Arizona. The plaque will be signed by Prof. Kazuyuki Tatsumi, President of IUPAC, Erik Bogsch, Chief Executive Officer of Gedeon Richter plc (Budapest, Hungary), and Prof. Robin Ganellin, Chair of the IUPAC-Richter Prize Selection Committee. Prof. Hanessian will present his award lecture at this symposium and also at the XXII EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Berlin, Germany, 2-6 September 2012.
Prof. Hanessian has been a Full Professor since 1969 in the Chemistry Department of the University of Montreal and currently holds the Isis Pharmaceutical Research Chair. He also holds faculty positions in the Departments of Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Pharmacology at the University of California, Irvine, where he is also Director of the Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology Graduate Program. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1988) and has received the Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering (1996) and was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada (1998). Among his many awards he has received the Bernard Belleau Award in Medicinal Chemistry (Canadian Society for Chemistry in 2001) and this year will receive the 2012 Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products.
Stephen Hanessian obtained his PhD at Ohio State University in 1960 and then spent seven years as a Research Chemist at the Parke-Davis Research Laboratories in Ann Arbor, Michigan, before moving to the University of Montreal. He has collaborated for research with many pharmaceutical companies and has approximately 500 research publications.
IUPAC was formed in 1919 by chemists from industry and academia. For more than 90 years, the Union has succeeded in fostering worldwide communications in the chemical sciences and in uniting academic, industrial and public sector chemistry in a common language. IUPAC is recognized as the world authority on chemical nomenclature, terminology, standardized methods for measurement, atomic weights and many other critically evaluated data. More information about IUPAC and its activities is available at http://www.iupac.org.
Gedeon Richter plc is a major pharmaceutical company in Hungary and one of the largest in the Central-Eastern European region. Founded in 1901, the company has more than 100 years of experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing. The vertically integrated firm carries out research, development, manufacture, and marketing of human finished drugs, active substances, and intermediates. Gedeon Richter plc is a regional multinational company in Central-Eastern Europe and the CIS, and has a growing presence through its commercial subsidiaries in key EU countries, the USA and Japan.
More information about Gedeon Richter plc and its activities is available at http://www.richter.hu.
For questions, contact Dr. Terrence Renner, IUPAC Executive Director, at secretariat@iupac.org.