Arthur K. Doolittle Award
The Arthur K. Doolittle Award recognizes an outstanding talk presented during a PMSE symposium at each of the Fall and Spring ACS National Meetings. The award has two awardees, one per meeting.
2025 Award Winners
Spring Conference
We are pleased to announce the winner of the Doolittle Award from the Spring 2025 ACS meeting, Dr. Adrianne M. Rosales.
PROFESSOR ADRIANNE M. ROSALES
University of Texas at Austin
Building hierarchical structure into hydrogels for engineered extracellular matrices
Adrianne Rosales is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a co-lead of the Interdisciplinary Research Group “Fuel-Driven Pluripotent Materials” in UT Austin’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UT Austin and obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UC-Berkeley. After completing her Ph.D. in 2013, she trained at the University of Colorado Boulder as an NIH NRSA post-doctoral fellow. Adrianne’s group at UT Austin focuses on the development of bioinspired polymeric materials to model cellular microenvironments and engineer therapeutic technologies. This work has been supported by a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interfaces, an NIH Early Stage Investigators Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award, and an NSF CAREER Award. This work has also been recognized by an ACS PMSE Early Investigator Award, a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, and the journal ACS Polymers Au.
2024 Award Winners
Fall Conference
We are pleased to announce the winner of the Doolittle Award from the Fall 2024 ACS meeting, Dr. Wenhui Niu.
DR. WENHUI NIU
Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics
Topological Engineering of Graphene Nanoribbons for Next-Generation Electronics
Wenhui Niu was born in China in 1994. She obtained her B.Sc. in polymer engineering from Sichuan University in 2016 and her Ph.D. in chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Yiyong Mai at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2021. During her Ph.D. work, she pioneered the topological engineering of graphene nanoribbons with tailoring optoelectronics properties and excellent liquid-phase processability. After completing her PhD, Wenhui joined the Technische Universität Dresden as a postdoctoral fellow for one year, working with Prof. Xinliang Feng. After that, she joined the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics as a research group leader, where her research focused on the development of novel chiral nanographenes with exceptional chiroptical properties. In 2023, Wenhui Niu was selected as a Minerva Fast Track group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, and since April 2024, she has been leading the “Quantum Chiral Nanocarbons” group. Her current research interests lie heavily on the recognition of spin polarization behavior of chiral nanocarbons and their potential applications in chiral spintronics.
Spring Conference
We are pleased to announce the winner of the Doolittle Award from the Spring 2024 ACS meeting, Dr. Tae-Lim Choi.
PROFESSOR TAE-LIM CHOI
ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Universal Suzuki Catalyst-transfer Polymerization for Precision Synthesis of Donor/Acceptor Conjugated Polymers
Tae-Lim Choi was born in Seoul, 1977. He obtained his BS from KAIST in 1999, and PhD from Caltech under the supervision of Bob Grubbs, in 2003. He then moved to UC Berkeley as a post-doc researcher under the guidance of Jean Fréchet until 2004. He returned to S. Korea and worked at Cheil Industries, Samsung, for four years. In 2008, he started his independent career as an assistant professor at the Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University. He was promoted to full professor in 2017. In 2022, he moved to the Department of Materials at ETH, Zürich as a Professor of Polymer Chemistry. His research interests lie heavily on synthesis, focusing on developing new methods (living, cascade or diversity-oriented polymerizations, etc.) to synthesize various macromolecules including new conjugated polymers and understanding their mechanisms. Recently, his focus has moved to applying these synthetic tools towards self-assembly of conjugated polymers to prepare various semiconducting nanostructures.
Tae-Lim has received the following awards: Herbert Newby McCoy Award (2004, Best Thesis in the Department of Chemistry at Caltech); Chungam Young Investigator Fellowship (2010, POSCO Foundation), Outstanding Research Achievement Award, Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, Republic of Korea; Presidential Young Scientists Award; President of the Republic of Korea (2014); Distinguished Lectureship Award, Chemical Society of Japan (2013); Young Organic Chemists Award from KCS Organic Chemistry Division (2015); Asian Rising Star Lectureship Award, The 18th Asian Chemical Congress (2019); Polymer Chemistry Award, Polymer Chemistry Division, Korean Chemical Society (2021); and Hanseong Science Award (2023). He is a member of the Young Korean Academy of Science and Technology. Between 2013 and 2022, he served as an editor of Journal of Polymer Science and is currently on the editorial advisory boards of Angew. Chemie. (Wiley-VCH).
Award Details
One awardee will be selected from oral presentations at each National Conference. The awardee will receive a $1000 prize and plaque and are acknowledged at the following year’s Spring ACS National Meeting.
History
Originally established by the Union Carbide Corporation as the Carbide Award, its name was later changed due to Arthur K. Doolittle’s contribution to the ACS Division of PMSE, the field of polymeric materials and financial contributions from royalties of his book, Technology of Solvents and Plasticizers.
Award Selection
All oral PMSE presentations are eligible for nomination by symposium organizers on the basis of content with emphasis on originality, impact, and development of new concepts in polymeric materials. Recipients are selected by an anonymous panel of judges appointed by the PMSE Doolittle Award Committee.
Past Recipients
Award and Nomination Summary
Purpose
Originally established to recognize and encourage high quality presentations and submissions during PMSE symposium by by the Union Carbide Corporation as the Carbide Award. The award title was later changed to recognize Arthur K. Doolittle’s contribution to the ACS Division of PMSE, the field of polymeric materials, and his financial contributions from royalties of Technology of Solvents and Plasticizers.
Rules of Eligibility
All oral PMSE presentations are eligible for nomination by symposium organizers on the basis of content with emphasis on originality, impact, and development of new concepts in polymeric materials.
Nominations Process
PMSE symposium organizers will submit nominations from their symposium to the PMSE Doolittle Award Committee. Recipients are selected by an anonymous panel of judges appointed by the PMSE Doolittle Award Committee.
Award Selection
The selection will be made by an anonymous panel of judges appointed by the PMSE Doolittle Award Committee.
Award Announcement and Nature
The award has two awardees, one per meeting. The two awardees will receive a $1000 prize and plaque and are acknowledged at the following year’s Spring ACS National Meeting.
Full List of Award Winners
2023 Winners
Danielle Mai
Stanford University
“Gelation Dynamics During Photocrosslinking of Polymer Nanocomposite Hydrogels”
Hiroshi Jinnai
Tohoku University
“Nanoscale Static and Dynamic Characterization of Polymer Hierarchical Structures for Sustainable Engineering”
2022 Winners
Shana Olwyn Kelly, Northwestern University
“Building Biomolecular Sensing Conjugates for a New Era of Physiological Monitoring
Will Gutenkunst (Georgia Institute of Technology)
“Merging alkynes with cyclic enol ethers for alternating metathesis polymerization”
2021 Winners
Jodie Lutkenhaus (Texas A&M University)
“Layer-by-layer assembly of 2-dimensional MXene nanosheets for applications in sensing and energy storage”
Evan Lloyd (Duke University)
“Rapid, energy-efficient synthesis and recycling of degradable thermosets”
Past Winners – 2000s
2020
Enrique Gomez (Penn State), “Fundamental properties of conjugated polymers from the chemical structure”
2019
Julia Kalow (Northwestern University), “Reversibly photocontrolled stress-relaxing networks”
2019
Jian Qin (Stanford University), “Competition of solvation and entropic effects in ion-containing block polymers”
2018
Nathaniel Lynd (University of Texas at Austin), “Mono(µ-oxo)-dialuminum (MOD) initiated polymerization of epoxides to new functional materials”
2018
April M. Kloxin (University of Delaware), “Utilizing light-mediated chemistries for the modulation of biomaterial properties”
2017
David Kaplan (Tufts University), “Design of protein systems for materials functions”
2017
Brett Fors (Cornell University), “Shaping the future of polymer molecular weight distributions”
2016
William R. Dichtel (Northwestern University), “Porous Cyclodextrin Polymers for the Rapid Removal of Organic Pollutants from Water.”
2016
Ulrich Wiesner (Cornell University), “Block copolymer-directed hybrid materials: Experiments, theory, and applications.”
2015
Kyoko Nozaki (The University of Tokyo), “Coordination Copolymerization of Olefins with Polar Monomers Catalyzed Pd Complexes of Unsymmetrical Bidentate Ligands.”
2015
Jillian Buriak (University of Alberta), “Challenges Facing Directed Assembly of Block Copolymers: Nanopatterning at the sub-10nm Scale.”
2014
Andrew Cooper (University of Liverpool), “Swellable, Water-Tolerant Polymer Sponges for Carbon Dioxide Caputure”
2014
Fei Huang (South China University of Technology), “Development of New Polymer Donor and Interfacial Materials for the Interface Engineering of High Performance Polymer Solar Cells.”
2013
Greg Gossweiler, Qiming Wang, Xuanhe Zhao, Stephen L. Craig, (Duke University) “Mechanochemical Devices”
2013
Mark Hersam (Northwestern University), “Opportunities and Challenges for Functionalized Carbon Nnomaterials in Device Applications”.
2012
Michael S. Arnold, Dominick J. Bindl, Matthew J. Shea, Meng-Yin Wu (University of Wisconsin-Madison), “Harvesting Light Using Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes as Next-Generation Polymer-Photoabsorbers.”
2012
Takuzo Aida (University of Tokyo), “Tailoring Nanoscale Coaxial/linear Semiconducting Heterojunctions by Controlled Assembly of Molecular Graphenes.”
2011
Xuelian Zhu, Rong Dong, Gaoxiang Wu, Shu Yang, (University of Pennsylvania), “Understanding pattern transformation mechanisms in different responsive hydrogel membranes.”
2011
Ting Xu (University of California – Berkeley), Andrew Presley (University of California – Berkeley) and Joseph Chang (University of California – Berkeley), “Nanostructured Block Copolymer Thin Films Contianing Enzymatically Active Heme Proteins.”
2010
M. Calderon (Institute for Chemistry & Biochemistry), P. Welker (mivenion), K. Licha (mivenion), I. Fichtner (Max-Delbruck), R. Graeser (Tumor Biology Center & Proqinase GmbH), F. Kratz (Tumor Biology Center & Proqinase GmbH), R. Haag (Institute for Chemistry & Biochemistry), “Acid Cleavable Multifunctional Prodrugs Derived from Dendritic Polyglycerol”
2010
G. Kane Jennings (Vanderbilt University), “Superhydrobic barrier films by surface-initiated polymerization”
2009
F. M. Winnik, E. Hutter, (University of Montreal); S. Boridy, D. Maysinger (McGill University); and S. Labrecque (Université Laval Robert-Giffard, Quebec) “Imaging of Gold Nanourchins, Nanospheres, and Nanorods in Glia and Neurons”
2009
S. Brandstetter, L. Drummy, (UES Inc., Ohio), M. Tchoul, S. Fillery, J. Horwath, D. Schweickart, M. Durstock, and Richard A. Vaia, (Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson AF), “Dielectric Strength and Corona Endurance of Polymers and Nanocomposites with In-Plane Lamellar Nano-Structure”
2008
J. Long, A. Fischer, T. McEvoy, M. Bourg, J. Lytle and D. Rolison (Naval Research Laboratory), “Self-limiting electro polymerization en route to ultrathin conformal polymer coatings for energy storage applications.”
2008
L. Hutchings, A. P. Namainen, N. Clarke, R. L. Thompson and I. A. Insari (Durham University, UK),” Modifying and repairing polymer surfaces with well defined multi end-functionalized polymers.”
2007
M. Hillmyer, L. Chen, A. Meuler, D. Olson and F. Bates (University of Minnesota), “Mechanically robust nanoporous plastics from multicomponent block copolymers”
2007
H. Klok, S. Tugulu, A. Arnold, I. Sielaff, K. Johnsson, P. Silacci and N. Stergiopulos, (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland), “Studying protein function and controlling cell adhesion with polymer brushes.”
2006
K. Kamata (JST-CREST, Japan) and T. Lyoda (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) “Nanotemplating Process of Phase-Segregated Structure in Amphiphilic Diblock Copolymer.”
2006
K. Breitenkamp and T. Emrick (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), “Polymer Capsules Prepared by Photo-Induced Crosslinking of Aryl Azide Functionalized Amphiphilic Graft Copolymers at the Oil-Water Interface.”
2005
L. A. Gugliotti, D. L. Feldheim and B. E. Eaton (North Carolina State University), “RNA-Mediated Metal-Metal Bond Formation in the Synthesis of Palladium Nanoparticles”
2005
Paul F. Nealey (University of Wisconsin), “Directed Assembly of Imaging Materials for Nanolithography.”
2004
J. R. Heath, D. Steuerman, Y, Luo (Cal Tech), H. Tseng, S. Vignon and J. F. Stoddart (UCLA), “Molecular Mechanics and Molecular Electronics”
2003
T. M. Reineke and Y. Liu, (University of Cincinnati), “Synthesis and Characterization of Polyhydroxyamides for DNA Delivery.”
2003
R. C. Advincula, M-K. Park (University of Houston), S. Pispas, N. Hadjichristidis (University of Athens-Greece) and J. Mays (University of Tennessee), “Adsorption Phenomena of Polyelectrolytes, Amphiphilic Block and Star Copolymers on Surfaces as Investigated by the Quartz Crystal Microbalance Method.”
2002
Luigi Resconi, Simona Guidotti, Isabella Camurati, Ilya E. Nifant’ev and Ilya Laishevtsev (Basell Polyolefins, Italy & Moscow State University, Russia), “New Catalysts Design for the Simultaneous Control over Polypropylene Molecular Mass and Stereoregularity.”
2001
F. Grassia, M. G. Bascheyyi, F. Doghieri, G. C. Sarti (Universita Degli Studi di Bologna), “Predictive Calculation of the Solubility of Gases and Vapors in Glassy Polymer Blends.”
2001
Mitsuo Sawamoto and Masami Kamigaito (Kyoto University), “Precision Synthesis of Functionalized Polymers by Metal-Catalyzed Living Radical Polymerization.”
2000
James E. Pickett (General Electric), “Kinetics of Polycarbonate Photoyellowing: An Initiation/Spreading Model.”
2000
M. Bognitzki, H. Hou, M. Ishaque, T. Frese, M. Hellwig, C. Schwarte, A. Schaper, J. Wendorff and A. Greiner (University of Mainz, Germany), “Polymer Metal and Hybrid-Nano- and Mesotubes by Coating of Degradable Polymer Template Fibers (Tuft Process).”
Past Winners – 1958 to 1999
1999
J. Aizenberg, A. J. Black and G. M. Whitesides (Lucent Technologies, Bell Laboratories), “Engineering the Micro-environment of Crystals Nucleation and Growth Using Micropatterned Polymers.”
1999
G. W. Coates, M. Cheng and E. B. Lobkovsky (Cornell University), “New High Activity Zinc-Based Catalysis for Polycarbonate Synthesis.”
1998
T. P. Lodge, K. J. Hanley, C. Huang and C. Y. Ryu (University of Minnesota), “Order-Order and Order-Disorder Transitions in Block Solutions and Melts.”
1998
J. G. Curro and J. D. Weinhold (Sandia National Laboratories), “Application of Integral Equation Theory to Polyolefin Liquids and Blends.”
1997
C. J. Hawker, E. E. Malmstrom (IBM), C. W. Frank, J. P. Kampf (Stanford University), C. Mio and J. Prausnitz (University of California – Berkeley), “Dendritic Macro-molecules: Hype or Unique Materials.”
1996
James J. Watkins, Thomas J. McCarthy — University of Massachusetts
1995
J. F. G. A. Jansen, E. M. M. de Brabander, E. W. Meijer — Eindhoven/DSM
1994
Jane E. G. Lipson — Dartmouth University
1993
M. K. Georges, R. Veregin, P. M. Kazmaier, G. K. Hamer – Xerox
1992
Willi Volksen, M. I. Sanchez, Jeffrey W. Labadie, T. Pascal — IBM/CNRS
Young C. Chung, Nicholas Leventis — Molecular Displays
1991
Jack L. Koenig – Case
Mark R. Schure — Rohm & Haas
1990
Gary D. Friends, Jay F. Kunzler — Bausch & Lomb
Jae-Seung Kim, Victor C. Yang — University of Michigan
1989
Hiroshi Ito, Mitsuru Ueda, Mayumi Ebina — IBM/Yamagata University
John L. West, J. William Doane, Zenaida Domingo, Paul Ukleja — Kent State University
1988
Mark G. Allen and Stephen D. Senturia – MIT
1987
I. V. Yannas, E. Lee, A. Ferdman, D. P. Orgill, E. M. Skrabut, G. F. Murphy – MIT
1986
Jean M. J. Frechet, Francis M. Houlihan, C. Grant Willson — University of Ottawa/IBM
1985
Jeffrey T. Koberstein, Thomas P. Russell — Princeton University/IBM
1984
Tamotsu Inabe, Joseph F. Lomax, Joseph W. Lyding, Carl R. Kannewurf, Tobin J. Marks — Northwestern University
1983
William J. Hall, R. L. Kruse, Robert A. Mendelson, Q. A. Trementozzi – Monsanto
1982
Alan G. MacDiarmid, Paul J. Nigrey, David F. Macinnes, Jr., David P. Nairns, Alan J. Heeger — University of Pennsylvania
1981
W. Harmon Ray, Francis J. Schork — University of Wisconsin
1980
Louis T. Manizone, John K. Gillham, C. Al McPherson — Bell/Princeton
1979
Yehonathan Hazony — Princeton University
1978
A. C. Ouano, J. A. Carothers – IBM
1977
James F. Kinstle, L. Eric Sepulveda — University of Tennessee
1975
Bernhard Wunderlich, George Czornyj – Rennselaer
1975
Donald L. Schmidt, H. B. Smith, William E. Broxterman, Mary R. Thomas – Dow
1973
Donald R. Paul and D. Ray Kemp — University of Texas
1972
Saul M. Cohen, Raymond H. Young, Albert H. Markhart – Monsanto
1971
Robert E. Baier, George I. Loeb — Cornell/NRL
1970
John Lynde Anderson – AMTEK
1969
Gilbert L. Burnside, George E. F. Brewer, Gordon G. Strosberg – Ford
1968
Roger P. Kambour – GE
1967
W. J. Jackson, Jr., John R. Caldwell — Tennessee Eastman
1966
R. H. Hansen, Harold Schonhorn — Bell Labs
1965
Edwin E. Bradford, John W. Vanderhoff – Dow
1963
Armand F. Lewis — American Cyanamid
1961
Eugene R. Moore, Stanley S. Levy, Chi-Chiang Lee – Case
1959
Frank A. Bovey, George V. D. Tiers, G. N. Filipovich — 3M
1958
Dean Taylor, Jr., John E. Rutzler, Jr. – Case
1956
Clara D. Craver, E. R. Mueller – Battelle
1955
William A. Zisman, E. F. Hare, H. W. Fox – NRL