GCI Nexus Blog articles

By Edmond Lam, Assistant Director, and Cecilia Smith, Administrative Assistant, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

The EPA’s 2024 final risk management rule on dichloromethane (DCM) prohibits the distribution and most uses of DCM, aiming to minimize harmful health effects of the commonly used solvent. Adjusting to the new restriction presents a distinct challenge for the research community. Due to this challenge, the ACS GCI in collaboration with ACS Offices of Safety Programs and Government Affairs has developed a new online resource to assist with the transition to compliance with the new restriction.

By Edmond Lam, Assistant Director, and Cecilia Smith, Administrative Assistant, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

The EPA’s 2024 final risk management rule on dichloromethane (DCM) prohibits the distribution and most uses of DCM, aiming to minimize harmful health effects of the commonly used solvent. Adjusting to the new restriction presents a distinct challenge for the research community. Due to this challenge, the ACS GCI in collaboration with ACS Offices of Safety Programs and Government Affairs has developed a new online resource to assist with the transition to compliance with the new restriction.

 

 

In April 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a final risk management rule prohibiting the distribution and use of a solvent that is found in many commercial products and used in numerous teaching and research labs across the country. Dichloromethane (known as methylene chloride or DCM) has been widely used as a solvent for mixing and for the purification of reaction products due to its solvent polarity and low flammability. However, despite its useful properties in industry and research, DCM is a very hazardous chemical as it can cause short-term adverse effects like dizziness as well as long-term impacts, such as cancer and liver damage, and in some cases can lead to death.

The EPA’s 2024 final ruling limits most uses of DCM and represents a significant milestone for the green chemistry and environmental health and safety communities, among others, in promoting human health and restricting a hazardous chemical whose detrimental health effects have been known for years. The ruling’s restriction on the distribution of DCM will take effect on May 5, 2025, and the restriction on the use of DCM in many commercial applications will go into effect on April 28, 2026.

Due to the prevalence of DCM use in the research community and the additional requirements for chemical hygiene plans mandated by OSHA, the ruling has caused much confusion and concern. To help clarify the matter, the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, in collaboration with the ACS Offices of Safety Programs and Government Affairs, has developed a new online resource to assist with the transition to compliance with the new restriction.

The new resource aims to answer the most common question that has arisen, “Can I continue to use DCM in the laboratory?” While using DCM in the laboratory falls into one of the for the EPA's 13 permitted use cases for the solvent, this comes with conditions of use that require a Workplace Chemical Protection Program (WCPP), which must be put into place by August 1, 2025. In addition to the challenges the short timeline for compliance presents, the WCPP could be costly for those who do not have the resources to monitor DCM levels or implement an exposure control plan according to EPA guidelines.

While presenting information regarding the allowed use cases of DCM, the new ACS page provides resources and information to help researchers and lab managers determine a course of action when they cannot comply with a WCPP. There are many safe alternative solvents to DCM which can be considered. Unfortunately, it is usually not a straightforward process to replace DCM with another solvent without considering the chemistry being performed, as DCM has been used in a wide range of applications with different reaction conditions and in a number of analytical techniques. Since experimental hazards can result from a variety of agents, conditions, and/or activities, it’s important to carefully consider the hazards and risks of the DCM substitute. Green chemistry and green engineering principles and lab safety protocol serve as excellent tools to minimize risks and determine a tailored DCM alternative while preventing “regrettable substitutions” that could be potentially worse than DCM. Since effective substitutes reduce the potential for harmful effects and do not create new risks, resources for evaluating the hazards and risks of potential substitutes are crucial.

In addition to highlighting the holistic, green chemistry informed approach needed to determine DCM replacements, the new resource page will also feature ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable online guides and tools, resources from the ACS Office of Safety Programs, and peer reviewed research papers to help the community make informed decisions on which types of solvents could be used to replace DCM in specific applications.

We welcome the community to contribute their best practices and research into DCM alternatives as the research community navigates through this process. You can explore additional safer alternatives and recent publications (and submit your own) at the Green Chemistry for Sustainability Platform. 

While the community navigates this challenging transition period, it’s important to keep in mind that benzene and carbon tetrachloride, two harmful solvents, have largely been phased out of research lab use over the years. The transition away from these two solvents was brought about not only because of environmental health and safety concerns, but because of the research community’s ability to change their solvent use habits by making use of reliable scientific resources available to help make informed decisions.

By David A. Laviska, Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Join us in congratulating the winner of the Teaching Green Fellowship, David Vosburg, Ph.D., and winners of the Rising Star in Green Chemistry Education Award, Iris Yu, Ph.D., and Qi Dong, Ph.D. 

2025 Teaching Green Fellowship

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute is proud to announce that David Vosburg, Ph.D. (Harvey Mudd College) is the winner of the 2025 “Teaching Green Fellowship”. Sponsored by the ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future, this fellowship is given to a pedagogical innovator who has reimagined one or more parts of the chemistry curriculum to better prepare students for future careers in which they can work toward addressing grand global challenges such as those addressed by the U.N. SDGs. “Reimagining” includes developing, piloting, deploying, and documenting significant curricular innovations involving the fundamental tenets of green chemistry and/or sustainability. Curricula can include material for teaching at the undergraduate level in traditional lecture classes, laboratory classes, and/or other non-traditional modes of instruction where student success has been demonstrated convincingly. In addition to the engraved award, the winner receives $10,000 for faculty summer salary, $5,000 for summer stipend(s) for student(s) working in conjunction with faculty on the development of greener curriculum materials, and travel support for the awardee and one student to attend the annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference (GC&E) to receive the award and speak at an invited awards symposium.

Dr. David Vosburg, Harvey Mudd College

Dr. Vosburg is the Donald A. Strauss Professor of Chemistry at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, a proud signer of the Beyond Benign Green Chemistry Commitment. His research group pursues biomimetic organic synthesis, sustainable chemistry, and green chemistry education. He was educated at Williams College, Scripps Research Institute, and Harvard Medical School. David is a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, a Newbigin Interfaith Fellow, an Inklings Project Fellow, and a recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Environmental Improvement (ACS-CEI) Award for Incorporating Sustainability into Chemistry Education. He and his family of five share J.R.R. Tolkien's love for forests and eucatastrophe and have enjoyed green-chemistry-related sabbaticals at the University of Cambridge (UK) and the University of Guanajuato (Mexico), the latter supported by a Fulbright-García Robles award.

 

2025 Rising Stars in Green Chemistry Education

We are also delighted to announce that two outstanding early-career faculty have been selected as winners of the 2025 “Rising Star in Green Chemistry Education Award”. The winners for 2025 are Iris Yu, Ph.D. (National University of Singapore) and Qi Dong, Ph.D. (Purdue University). Sponsored by the ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future through the Green Chemistry Institute, this award is meant to recognize outstanding early-career scholars who have committed to a significant focus on green chemistry and/or sustainability in curricula for teaching chemistry, chemical engineering, or a closely related field. Early-career scholars who have committed to a significant focus on green chemistry and/or sustainability in their curricula for teaching are eligible. Curricula can include material for teaching traditional lecture classes, laboratory classes, and/or other non-traditional modes of instruction if student success has been demonstrated convincingly. Mentoring and apprenticeship in the research laboratory is also considered, if research outcomes are directly tied to the fundamental tenets of green chemistry and student development and training are valued and measurable. Two awards are given annually, and winners receive an engraved award, a $1,000 honorarium, and travel support for the awardee and one student (up to $2,000 each) to attend the annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference (GC&E) to receive the award and present their work at an invited awards symposium.

Dr. Iris Yu, National University of SingaporeIris Yu is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. Dr. Yu specializes in microwave thermoprocessing and green catalysis. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in 2018. She was a Humboldt Fellow at the Technical University of Munich, Germany and Postdoctoral Researcher at Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, University of York, UK. She actively contributes to the scientific community serving as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. She was awarded the MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 (TR35) Asia Pacific 2023 and L'Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Singapore 2024. Iris’s team strives to valorize bioresources for the synthesis of carbon-neutral products with potential market value. Her team adopts microwave reactors as the core of the upcycling technology, which enables energy-efficient heating, with the scientific focus on unravelling the synergies between microwaves, renewable feedstocks, and catalysts. The research outcomes will facilitate science-driven design of microwave-assisted catalytic systems for bioresource utilization. By developing thermocatalytic approaches to diversify the technology market, her research paves the way for turning homogeneous organic waste into high-value products (food additives, cosmetic ingredients), closing the bioresource loop and creating local circular economies.

 

Dr. Qi Dong, Purdue University

Qi (Tony) Dong is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Boston College, where he focused on green energy technologies such as metal-air batteries and electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction. He then completed postdoctoral training at the University of Maryland and served as a visiting scholar at Princeton University, exploring green chemical manufacturing using electrothermal approaches. During this time, Dr. Dong co-founded Polymer-X Inc., a startup dedicated to electrified chemical synthesis and plastic upcycling. His research centers on developing novel chemical processes and materials to address pressing challenges in energy, environmental sustainability, and critical resource management. In addition, he is deeply passionate about sustainability and green chemistry education. Since joining Purdue, he has developed and offered a graduate-level course titled “Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment.” This interdisciplinary course addresses the evolving energy landscape and growing environmental challenges and includes topics such as decarbonization, carbon capture, utilization and sequestration, plastic recycling, microplastics, PFAS, and life-cycle assessment. In addition, Dr. Dong is developing an undergraduate-level course that discusses the intersection of chemistry and sustainability.

To learn more about the ACS GCI Green Chemistry Awards for instructors, please visit Green Chemistry Funding & Awards - American Chemical Society.

By Christiana Briddell, ACS GCI Communications Manager

The ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable kicked off its 20th anniversary celebrations with a workshop “Driving Sustainability in Pharma and Allied Industries,” hosted at the AstraZeneca campus in Macclesfield, UK on March 13.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable (GCIPR) kicked off its 20th anniversary celebrations with a workshop “Driving Sustainability in Pharma and Allied Industries,” hosted at the AstraZeneca campus in Macclesfield, UK on March 13. The event created a dynamic intermingling of chemists from many different pharmaceutical companies with local university students and other small businesses in the pharma supply chain. Participants gained an understanding of the tools, resources, and activities that have emerged from this 20-year collaboration to advance green chemistry, with the ACS GCIPR co-chairs Mike Kopach (Lilly) and Paul Richardson (Pfizer), and ACS GCI Assistant Director Isamir Martinez, kicking it off.

Invited speakers included Prof. Nick Turner of the University of Manchester who spoke about the frontiers of biocatalysis, and Prof. Helen Sneddon of the University of York, who provided a full overview of the Roundtable tools as useful resources for the classroom and academic research. Providing industry case studies, Steve Swallow demonstrated how AstraZeneca is employing green chemistry to further their ambitious sustainability objectives. Olivier Dapremont, SK Pharmteco, explained how his company is successfully and very efficiently recycling solvents in several key separation processes. Shane McKenna, BMS, presented the Peter Dunn Award-winning sustainable process design for an active pharmaceutical ingredient manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Other topics included an introduction to sustainability in peptides and oligonucleotides presented by Martin Kenworthy and Anna Watson (AstraZeneca), new technologies for discovery chemistry discussed by Shazia Keily (Vertex), and a review from Álvaro Enríquez Gracia (Lilly) on hazards associated with common solvent used in medicinal chemistry and the importance of appropriate solvent selection, facilitated by the ACS GCIPR Solvent Selection Tool. ACS GCI’s Sederra Ross elicited some friendly competition by leading a trivia game that tested which participants were paying the closest attention to the days’ talks. The workshop closed with a lively poster session where students presented their own research to the attendees. With a 100% satisfaction rate, it was a productive and fun day for all. The Roundtable looks forward to presenting a second full-day workshop in the fall which will be hosted at Takeda in Cambridge, MA.

The workshop took place after the two-day ACS GCIPR meeting where over 50 members participated in-person and online to discuss priorities and report on the progress of initiatives from many of the Roundtable’s focus teams. A big thanks to AstraZeneca for hosting both the meeting and the workshop in their beautiful campus, provided delicious lunches, and giving Roundtable members a tour of their batch and new flow chemistry facilities. It is aways a pleasure to get to hear first-hand how different companies approach sustainability, and we appreciated hearing the ways in which green chemistry plays an important role at AstraZeneca. The Roundtable meetings are exceptional events where companies can come together and learn from each other, and where members can contribute to the mission of the Roundtable to advance green chemistry and engineering throughout the pharma industry and allied spaces.

Mike Kopach (Lilly) and Paul Richardson (Pfizer) with ASC GCI Assistant Director Isamir Martinez in front of the AstraZeneca sign. Credit: James White Photography

 

 

Students reading the Solvent Guide at the workshop. Credit: James White Photography

 

 

ASC GCI Assistant Director Isamir Martinez with workshop participants. Credit: James White Photography

 

 

Roundtable members prepared to tour the AstraZeneca site.

 

 

ASC GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable members at Jordell Bank radio telescope. Credit: James White Photography

 

Steve Swallow of AstraZeneca poses with ASC GCI Assistant Director Isamir Martinez in front of the ACS GCIPR 20th anniversary sign.

 

 

 

By Adelina Voutchkova, ACS Director of Sustainable Development

This letter originally appeared in the March/April issue of the Nexus newsletter.

 

Dear colleagues, 

This issue of the Nexus is hitting your mailboxes amidst unprecedented turbulence for the scientific community. Many members of our community have been impacted by recent policy events, and we want to extend our support to all of you. Amidst this turbulence, a significant event for the green chemistry and engineering community went under the radar: last December, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released the second part of the Sustainable Chemistry Strategy Report mandated by the bipartisan Sustainable Chemistry Research and Development Act, enacted during the first Trump administration. Although the Biden OSTP site has been archived, the report can be accessed through the Green Chemistry for Sustainability platform. This 52-page document outlines a comprehensive plan for advancing sustainable chemistry in the United States and provides a “call to action” for the scientific community to fill innovation gaps and translate them into practical implementation. 

The report highlights several key areas of research with significant potential impacts, including earth-abundant metal catalysis, discovery of more sustainable chemical transformation mechanisms, and innovation and adoption of biocatalysis and synthetic biology for chemical manufacturing. Surprisingly, one area that received less attention in the report was the development of rational approaches for the design of safer commercial chemicals and assessments of chemical safety. 

Additionally, the report emphasizes leveraging data-driven approaches to advance sustainable chemistry practices. This includes utilizing advanced data analytics and AI to optimize chemical processes and predict environmental impacts. By integrating data-driven methodologies, researchers can identify more sustainable alternatives and improve the efficiency of chemical transformations. These approaches also facilitate the development of safer chemicals and materials by providing insights into their potential hazards and lifecycle impacts. 

As noted by Joel Tickner in a recent C&EN Comment, the report does not address some aspects critical to incentivizing sustainable chemistry investment, such as practical criteria to evaluate investments from this perspective and emphasis on safety as a pre-requisite for sustainability. However, it calls for development of a framework to evaluate the sustainability of products or processes through a multicriteria analysis that involves efficiency, energy, circularity, safety, social, and economic factors (Figure below). Implementing such a framework will be no small feat, requiring buy-in from researchers, agencies, industry and NGOs.

A hypothetical evaluation framework for sustainable chemistry. Source: Federal Sustainable Chemistry Strategic Plan, December 2024.

 

We encourage you to delve into the report and explore the research areas with high potential for impact. Read the full report and join us in making a difference. For more insights, you can also read the detailed coverage from C&EN’s Sara Cottle. 

 

By Cecilia Smith, Administrative Assistant, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

How can the agricultural industry mitigate emissions while simultaneously increasing production by nearly 50% to meet increasing worldwide demand? The global agriculture industry is tasked with this fundamental challenge to address increasing food demand arising from population growth. Incentive programs for efficient farming practices, innovations in crop protection science, biological solutions, and effective data collection—strategies implemented by agriculture companies like Nutrien and Corteva Agriscience—can help the industry maximize efficiency and make progress towards this global need.

As the worldwide population is expected to increase from a little over 8 billion in 2025 to 9.75 billion people in 2050, the USDA predicts that global agricultural production would need to increase to 14,060 trillion crop calories to feed the global population, a 47-percent increase in crop calories from 2011. The United Nations highlights this challenge in their Sustainable Development Goal #2: Zero Hunger, and projects that more than 600 million people worldwide will be facing hunger in 2030 if production proceeds at its current pace. To address this crucial worldwide goal, it’s clear that the agriculture sector must increase output and embrace innovative solutions.

Graphs showing projected population growth and projected actual and needed crop yield to meet growing demand from 2010 to 2050. Source: https://www.grida.no/resources/8183 – credit to Riccardo Pravettoni.

 

A Systems Approach: Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes

Experts in the industry have adopted various programs and new technologies to decrease chemical use and lessen environmental impact. As nitrogen fertilizer is a primary crop nutrient used extensively in agriculture, it has become an important factor in many efficiency initiatives. One such example is an incentive program used by Nutrien, a leading global crop inputs and services company, which provides growers with financial compensation for improving their nitrogen use efficiency. The Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes program offers compensation for growers on a per acre basis when they reduce applied nitrogen by a minimum of 5% and provide Nutrien with specific data on their crops and yields.

Sally Flis, Director of Sustainable Ag Programs at Nutrien, describes how the program encourages growers to think about fertilizer use in a more holistic way by targeting the Four R’s of nutrient management: right source, right rate, right time, and right placement of fertilizer. 

“The Four R’s are really trying to get agriculture stakeholders to think about all of the factors that impact fertilizer application, instead of focusing just on rate,” says Flis.

Graphic showing the Four R's of nutrient management: right source, right rate, right time, and right place.

From a sustainability standpoint it may seem like reducing the rate of nitrogen-based fertilizer use is the most environmentally beneficial option, but this isn’t always the case. A decrease in nitrogen fertilizer use that results in a much lower yield can lead to an overall increase in emissions for that amount of crops. Inversely, using much more nitrogen than needed to ensure a high yield of crops introduces excess nitrogen emissions. By using crop consultants who work with growers individually, Nutrien tailors its Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes Program to meet individual farms’ needs, taking into consideration growers’ specific crop history and goals. Flis states that this process “helps growers focus on the whole system instead of thinking only about fertilizer use rate and assuming that changing just the rate will reduce emissions.” At the end of the day, the program’s aim is to increase efficiency. “Our goal is that on every acre where this program is implemented, we assist the grower to increase yield with less inputs than they previously applied.”

Taking a holistic, systemic approach to efficient farming practices also means providing meaningful and impactful incentives for individual farmers to drive widespread adoption of these practices. As with many industries, it can be challenging to convince stakeholders to change their processes, and many growers express concern about yield loss when using less fertilizer, meaning financial incentives for growers enrolled in the program are crucial. Additionally, Flis states that, “it takes time and effort from the growers to collect the right data needed for the program that then must be verified, analyzed, and reported. It’s important to have an incentive that’s meaningful to growers.”

 

Farmer Focused Solutions

Like Nutrien, Corteva Agriscience sees the importance of centering growers and farmers when developing sustainable alternatives to current agricultural practices. Corteva Agriscience, an agricultural and seed company that has won six Green Chemistry Challenge Awards, creates new fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and seed treatments that aim to increase crop yield while minimizing environmental impact. Ashish Batra, Corteva’s Vice President of Crop Health R&D, states that, “Corteva’s innovation process really starts with the farmer focus. We ask, ‘What is the problem that they have that we can solve?’” Corteva then uses 12 sustainable innovation criteria, which align with 5 of the U.N. SDGs, to develop new technology and chemistry to solve that problem.

Like Nutrien’s Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes Program, one of Corteva’s products aims to target nitrogen use, but through a different strategy. Utrisha™ N is a biological compound launched by Corteva which is based on the endophytic bacterium Methylobacterium symbioticum, which works with the plant to secure needed nitrogen from the atmosphere by enhancing nitrogen use efficiency. This unique biological product acts as a supplemental source of nitrogen for crops in addition to synthetic fertilizers. It provides nitrogen to the plant throughout the growing season and enhances yield for farmers without any additional synthetic nitrogen than their standard practice. In Brazil, farmers have seen roughly a 4.4 bushels per acre advantage using Utrisha™ N as a supplemental source of nitrogen in corn, and about a 2.6 bushels per acre increase in soybeans.

Potatoes treated with 200 kg N/ha vs. 200 kg N/ha + Utrisha N. The field that received Utrisha N shows improved vigor and yielded over 5% more (56.1 t/ha compared to 53.1 t/ha).

Barriers & Drivers to Change

Despite these advancements, there are a number of obstacles to widespread implementation of efficiency practices, such as a lack of cooperation between stakeholders. Flis states that when beginning to work with new growers for the Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes program, it’s important to understand where growers are starting from to figure out the best strategy for increasing efficiency and production gains per acre. Large surveys on grower practices range from 10-20 years old, and current programs for collecting public grower data are slow, meaning the data can be out of date by the time it’s published.

“Enhancing government data collection protocols and establishing a centralized public dataset could greatly assist companies in setting accurate baselines,” says Flis. “Data accessibility should foster collaboration rather than competition.”

Additionally, implementation of new products and processes is often slow. For Corteva, developing a new crop protection chemistry takes roughly 12 years from discovery to launch of the product. For Nutrien, while they have successfully created a unique pathway for growers from initial sign-on to implementation, the current timeframes for data collection, verification, validation, and monetization present opportunities for refinement. This reflects the continuous journey towards optimizing the efficiency of these processes.

When it comes to motivating change in existing practices, performance ultimately drives change more quickly.

“At the end of the day, farmers really don't care about products themselves,” says Batra. “They care about performance. If you were to ask a farmer, ‘Will you buy a more sustainable product?’ the answer will be, ‘What does the product do for me?’ Farmers are the original stewards of the land, so they want to ensure that they are doing everything they can to continue to have healthy land that generates healthy crops generation after generation.”

To address increasing global food demand, the agriculture industry therefore needs to pair scientific advancements in performance with meaningful incentives for local growers and stakeholders to implement those advancements. The development of crop protection technologies, biological solutions, and nitrogen management plans represent important steps towards improvement. However, the agriculture industry and regulatory stakeholders must work to incentivize adoption of these technologies for them to create positive outcomes.

Reflecting on the progress the agriculture industry has made—and the innovations that lie ahead—Batra says, “Sustainability is relative, not absolute. If you can’t focus on improving the sustainability of all aspects of a product, focus on one or two things to improve so that the next generation of products is better than the first. Sustainability is a continuous improvement journey.”

For the agriculture industry to help prevent increased food scarcity, farmers, researchers, and government and industry partners must all embrace this mindset.

By Vittoria Valentine, Program Specialist, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

The ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable (GCIPR) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Industry Awards. These awards honor advancements in green chemistry within the pharmaceutical sector and related industries, as well as their global supply chains.

“Recognition of industrial scientists contributing to more sustainable practices is an evolutionary opportunity to both acknowledge scientific advancement and to propagate next-generation scientific improvements throughout the industry,” said John Tucker, Executive Director for Neurocrine Biosciences and GCIRP Awards Team Co-lead. “The awards are judged by some of the brightest minds in the industry and have expanded to encompass small and large molecule process chemistry, medicinal chemistry, AI and machine learning, and include the global CDMO supply chain. They track and inspire the march toward greater sustainability through the application of superior scientific innovation.”

 

2025 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry

The Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry and Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry, established in 2016, honors exceptional industrial applications of innovative green chemistry and engineering in the pharmaceutical sector. This award recognizes projects that demonstrate significant improvements in environmental impact, safety, cost-efficiency, or overall effectiveness compared to existing technologies.

The Merck team, consisting of Patrick Fier, Patrick Moon, Scott McCann, Tao Liang, Greg Estrada, Marc Poirier, Reed Larson, Lu Wang, Gao Shang, and Fuh-Rong Tsay, received this award for their work, “From Bottleneck to Breakthrough: Developing a Sustainable and Scalable Manufacturing Process for a Complex ADC Drug-Linker”. They demonstrated the impact of applying green chemistry principles in the manufacturing process of the linker for the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) Sacituzumab tirumotecan (MK-2870). Originally, the manufacturing process had long lead times due to the 20-step synthetic sequence and faced a major bottleneck with the final purification that limited production to less than 100 g per month even with 24/7 operation in a high-potency chromatography suite. Major improvements were achieved by developing a synthesis from a widely available natural product that cut seven potent steps down to three. The Process Mass Intensity (PMI) was reduced by approximately 75%, and the amount of energy-intensive chromatography time was decreased by >99% compared to the original route. This work highlights the advantages of investing in greener and more sustainable processes that naturally improve the global supply of medicines to patients. 

 

2025 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Corteva was awarded for “A Sustainably-Designed Manufacturing Process to Adavelt™ Active from Renewable Feedstocks.” The Corteva team clearly demonstrated the design of an efficient manufacturing process for Adavelt™ active, with sustainability as a core focus. They adopted green chemistry principles to maximize yield, reduce waste, and deliver a cost-effective solution for farmers. Building upon the first-generation supply route, they developed a process that eliminated three protecting groups, four steps, the use of precious metals, and replaced undesirable reagents with greener alternatives while producing an active ingredient effective against 20 diseases in over 30 crops.

Adavelt(TM) process

Their manufacturing process reduced waste generation by 92% and incorporates three renewable feedstocks (furfural, alanine and ethyl lactate), increasing the renewable carbon content for the active ingredient to 41% compared to the first-generation process. The Corteva team includes Nicholas Babij, Nakyen Choy, Megan Cismesia, David Couling, Nicole Hough, Yamini Krishnan, Caroline Long, Adriane Miller, Mark Muehlfeld, and Greg Whiteker.

 

2025 CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award Winner

The CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award seeks to recognize outstanding efforts by CMO companies in pharmaceutical green chemistry in support of pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing that demonstrate compelling improvements in environmental impact, safety, and efficiency.

Olon S.p.A is awarded on their innovative work, “Recombinant DNA technology and chimeric protein expression for sustainable production of therapeutic peptides by microbial fermentation.” Leveraging their expertise in microbial fermentation, Olon S.p.A. has developed a flexible manufacturing platform for the synthesis of peptide therapeutics. This novel technology synthesizes peptides using microbial fermentation (rDNA expression), leading to reduced solvent and toxic material usage, as well as minimizing excess building blocks by using no protecting groups. This improving the overall PMI compared to the existing Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis (SPPS) methods. Moreover, as part of their platform, a Master Cell Bank (MCB) significantly reduces the lead time for manufacturing since the cells can be logarithmically proliferated to maximize the yield of desired product in the fermenter. They are adapting their novel Fermentation Platform towards commercial GLP-1 peptides and non-GLP-1 peptides. Olon's novel Fermentation Platform can help address the growing global demand for peptide therapeutics while employing the principles of green chemistry. The team consists of Piera Fonte, Gian Luca Bertetti, Antonella Malcangi, Alberto Oppedisano, Mattia Stucchi, Marianna Lembo, Guido Trione, Eleonora Amante, Giuseppe Borrelli, and Giuseppe Ferrante.

Olon S.p.A. facilities

 

Data Science and Modeling for Green Chemistry Award Winner

The Data Science and Modeling for Green Chemistry award aims to recognize the research and development of computational tools that guide the design of sustainable chemical processes and the execution of green chemistry that demonstrates compelling environmental, safety, and efficiency improvements over current technologies in the pharmaceutical industry and its allied industrial partners. 

The Merck and Sunthetics team, consisting of Kevin Stone, Daniela E. Blanco, Kaitlyn Brinza, Melodie Christensen, Shane Grosser, Yasser Khelalef, Abderrahman Lazizi, Andy Liaw, Spencer McMinn, Rafik Oulbsir, Victor Schultz, Ethan Tenison, César A. Urbina-Blanco, Ajit Vikram, and Yuting Xu, is awarded for their work, “Algorithmic Process Optimization (APO) for Pharmaceutical Development.” This technology makes use of state-of-the-art approaches in active learning, including Bayesian Optimization, to locate global optima in complex operational spaces that are expensive to evaluate experimentally. The Merck and Sunthetics team developed and demonstrated the APO technology allows for sustainable process design by minimizing material use and selecting non-toxic reagents, translating into reductions of the drug development costs. APO's versatility allows it to tackle numeric, discrete, and mixed-integer optimization problems with at least 11 input parameters, supporting both serial and parallel experimentation. Its ability to handle multi-objective optimizations focusing on cost and material efficiency with notable performance shows promise for AI-powered design for optimized and more sustainable processes.

 

Green Discovery Chemistry Award Winner

In 2025, the GCIPR Awards program expanded with the Green Discovery Chemistry Award. The Green Discovery Chemistry Award recognizes outstanding efforts in discovery chemistry that demonstrate compelling environmental, safety and/or efficiency improvements through green chemistry and engineering.

The Pfizer team has been awarded the inaugural prize for their submission, “Walk-Up Automated Reaction Profiling (WARP) System: A Tool for Reaction Monitoring Designed for Discovery Chemists.” The WARP system emphasizes waste reduction and minimizing exposure to hazardous substances. The technology provides a useful and versatile profiling tool for challenging reactions and is capable of improving reaction yields, shortening reaction times, and enhancing efficiency in various chemical processes while also reducing environmental impact. It features a simple user interface system to allow open-access use, offering a wide range of options for chemists and expanding the reach of the green chemistry technologies. The winning team consists of Muhammad Alimuddin, John Braganza, Paul Richardson, Wei Wang, and Alex Yanovsky, pictured below.

All award winners will present their innovations at the ACS GCI Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Pittsburgh, PA this June, in the session "Advancing Sustainable Processes in Pharma and Allied Industries Utilizing Green Chemistry Innovations."

By David A. Laviska, Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

With respect and sadness, we at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute share the news that our esteemed colleague and collaborator Dr. Edward J. Brush passed away on February 23, 2025. In addition to collaborating with GCI staff on a diverse portfolio of projects for more than a decade, Ed was a friend and mentor who consistently sought out opportunities to uplift and shine the spotlight on his colleagues. His gentle, welcoming manner, kindness, and intellectual generosity will be greatly missed here at the GCI and across the Green Chemistry Education community.

Ed spent the most of his career at Bridgewater State University (BSU) in Bridgewater, MA, where he was a beloved professor of organic chemistry, a highly successful pedagogical innovator, and a vigorous advocate for the inclusion of green and sustainable chemistry principles in higher education. In a statement issued by BSU, it was noted that Ed’s “dedication to undergraduate research transformed the learning experience for countless students, many of whom went on to pursue advanced degrees and impactful careers in chemistry and related fields.” Ed was strongly committed to service to the community and forged a strong bond with the Green Chemistry Institute and the ACS more broadly. In addition to his service on multiple ACS committees, Ed collaborated with the GCI and members of our green chemistry community to chair, co-chair, and speak in dozens of symposia, workshops, and related events all meant to highlight the importance of green chemistry, systems thinking, environmental and social justice, UN Sustainable Development Goals, and cross-disciplinary collaboration in teaching and research.

We will celebrate Ed’s life and legacy at the 29th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Pittsburgh, PA from June 23-26, 2025. You can read his published obituary here.

By Edmond Lam, Assistant Director, and Cecilia Smith, Administrative Assistant, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Meet the winners of the 2024 Sustainable Futures Initiative Grant Program! With research interests spanning from PFAS substitutes to degradable polyesters to green steel technology, these grantees are leading the charge in developing transformative chemistries that address U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and are passionate about instilling the importance of green and sustainable chemistry in their students.

 

 

“Green chemistry is both a challenging and deeply rewarding field. It is not only a responsible and essential area of study but also incredibly exciting. The principles of green chemistry force a chemist to think outside the box, collaborate across disciplines, and adopt a holistic approach to problem-solving,” says 2024 Early Career Postdoctoral (ECP) Faculty Bridge Grant awardee Michael McGraw when describing the importance of green chemistry and sustainability in his research direction and methodology. McGraw is one of seven early career faculty members and postdoctoral fellows to receive a 2024 ECP Grant from the ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future.

The ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future aims to advance chemistry innovations to address the challenges articulated in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Launched in 2022, this multifaceted initiative aims to create a lasting impact on how we conduct research, how we teach chemistry, and how we collaborate globally. One of the key initiatives of the Campaign is the Sustainable Futures Initiative Grant Program (SFIGP), which provides catalytic funding for early and mid-career faculty interested in developing a research and teaching portfolio that contributes directly to developing transformative chemistries that address U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

The ECP Grant, one of two grants supported by the SFIGP, focuses on the first few years of chemistry and engineering faculty members’ careers—often the most challenging and critical years for developing a robust research program that attracts grant funding, provides holistic training and mentorship to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and contributes to the culture of the department and the professional community. To that end, the seven recipients of the ECP Grant will receive support for a postdoctoral fellow’s salary, benefits, and travel for two years, allowing the grant recipients to launch a productive research group as a new faculty member.

The ACS Principal Investigator Development in Sustainability (PISD) Grant focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration and training for early- or mid-career researchers, providing funding to recipients who will benefit from a 6–12 month sabbatical at a hosting institution that they have intentionally selected to acquire new knowledge to advance their green and sustainable chemistry research. The program intends to foster connections between academia and industry, national laboratories, or other institutions that can provide interdisciplinary research opportunities.

Awardees for both grants were selected based on the innovative qualities of their research, its alignment with sustainability and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and its uniqueness. A feature of these grants is that they not only help promote new sustainability research, but also build capacity in green chemistry education, which has historically been a major barrier to the widespread adoption of green chemistry practices. ECP and PISD awardees will participate in a Green Chemistry Education Workshop at ACS Fall 2025 in Washington, D.C. to network with fellow awardees and learn best practices in green chemistry education from the 2025 Green Chemistry Instructor Award Winners.

Join us in congratulating the winners—and read on to discover the enthusiasm with which the grantees will bring green chemistry and engineering to their students!   

 

2024 ECP Grant Winners

Read more about the ECP winners’ research projects.

Kelvin H. Bates, Assistant Professor at CU Boulder

Project Title: Testing and Design of Atmospherically Benign Substitutes for Perfluoroalkyl Substances

“My research has always been driven by questions of sustainability: how can a better understanding of the chemical processes that lead to ozone and aerosol pollution help us to better forecast air quality and better conceive pollution mitigation strategies?”

 

Jesse Gordon – Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University

Project Title: Sustainable Strategies for Radical Amination Catalysis

“Equally important to my research vision is the role of sustainability in my teaching. The growing global emphasis on sustainability underscores the need to weave its principles into the chemistry curriculum. I hope to inspire students to see themselves as agents of change who can address global challenges through chemistry.”

 

Heather O. LeClerc – Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University 

Project Title: Enabling a Renewable Carbon-Based Economy by Unraveling Complex Organic Mixtures

“My passion for sustainability began before I had even learned about green chemistry. On a family vacation to the Bahamas in middle school, I remember telling my mom that one day I would reduce their reliance on diesel for electricity and transportation. As I have continued to learn about the principles of green chemistry and delve into sustainability-focused research, I strongly believe that all chemistry (and chemical engineering) should be green!”

 

Michael Lawrence McGraw – Assistant Professor at University of Arkansas 

Project Title: A Sustainable Polyaddition Platform for Degradable Polyesters

“Green chemistry is both a challenging and deeply rewarding field. It is not only a responsible and essential area of study but also incredibly exciting. The principles of green chemistry force a chemist to think outside the box, collaborate across disciplines, and adopt a holistic approach to problem-solving.”

 

Lauren Nicole Pincus – Assistant Professor at George Washington University 

Project Title: Fueling a circular economy: selective recovery of endangered elements from photovoltaic waste using ion-imprinted biopolymers

“Central to my teaching philosophy is the goal of my students viewing green chemistry as an intrinsic component of chemistry.”

 

 

Duhan Zhang – Postdoctoral Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Project Title: Transforming Tailings and Low-grade Ores into Green Steel and Rare Earth Concentrates: Achieving Zero Carbon Emissions and Waste

“By emphasizing the intersection of sustainability and engineering, I aim to prepare future scientists and engineers to lead the energy and sustainability transition toward a greener world.”

 

 

Xiaohui Xu – Assistant Professor at Rowan University 

Project Title: Integrated Lithium Extraction and Water Recovery

“As an educator, I am dedicated to instilling a sense of responsibility regarding sustainable practices in both teaching and research. My goal is to inspire future scientists to integrate sustainability into their research and careers.”

 

 

2024 PISD Grant Winners

Read more about the PISD winners’ research projects. 

Milad Abolhasani – ALCOA Professor & University Faculty Scholar at North Carolina State University

Project Title: A Sustainable Research Acceleration Framework for CO2 Photoreduction Using Self-Driving Labs

Sabbatical Host: ETH Zurich

“I plan to push the boundaries of sustainable self-driving labs, using advanced flow chemistry and machine learning to address global energy and environmental challenges.”

 

Grace Wan-Ting Chen – Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell

Project Title: Bio-Inspired Optimization for Microbial-Assisted Plastic Recycling and Pollution Mitigation in Aquatic Ecosystems (BIO-MAP)

Sabbatical Host: Woods Hole Oceanography Institution

“I plan to develop a graduate-level course on "Sustainable Green Chemistry in Polymer Science and Plastics Engineering,” which will empower students to design eco-friendly materials, promoting sustainability in polymer science and engineering for long-term impact.”

 

Carla Ng – Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh

Project Title: Unlocking Safer Alternatives: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Thermodynamics for More Sustainable Molecular Design

Sabbatical Host: University of Toronto

“Only through applying the principles of green chemistry and safe and sustainable by design can society continue to enjoy the benefits of chemistry and technology without the unintended consequences of hazardous chemicals.”

By David A. Laviska, Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute, and Michael Wentzel, Professor of Chemistry, Augsburg University

To confront complex challenges like climate change, growing demand for clean energy, persistence of chemicals in the environment, and plastics pollution, we need a generation of students trained to think about problems in a holistic and critical way. One way to change reductive mindsets that many students bring to higher education is to reference real-world applications and broader systems-based connections of fundamental chemistry concepts. 2024 ACS GCI Rising Star in Green Chemistry Education Awardee Professor Michael Wentzel aims to broaden students’ perspectives in this way through a transformative and immersive study-abroad experience for undergraduate students, "Science and Religion in Germany."

Heidelberg, Germany

Over the past quarter century, inclusion of the foundational principles of Green and Sustainable Chemistry in higher education has been slowly proliferating. Part of the motivation for this “reimagining” of the ways we prepare students for STEM careers comes from acknowledging the many sustainability challenges we face as a global community. We cannot confront complex challenges like climate change, growing demand for clean energy, persistence of chemicals in the environment, and plastics pollution without training students how to think about the concepts they learn from a systems thinking perspective. Where do chemical building blocks come from? Where does chemical waste end up? Which elements are abundant, and which are in limited supply? How do the answers to these questions (and many more) impact discovery and innovation, manufacturing, regulatory policy, human and environmental health, economics, national/international politics, etc.? 

One way to change reductive mindsets that many students bring to higher education is to reference real-world applications and broader systems-based connections of fundamental chemistry concepts. As one example, the combination of hydrogen with nitrogen to form ammonia is an example of a deceptively “simple” chemical reaction that is commonly used to introduce first-year chemistry students to a broad spectrum of topics (e.g., stoichiometry, ideal gases, equilibrium, etc.):  

Reaction of nitrogen gas with hydrogen gas to form ammonia.

 

Yet textbooks rarely delve into discussions of the Haber-Bosch process in which the reaction shown above is leveraged to produce ammonia at industrial scale. Haber-Bosch ammonia is a feedstock for large-scale commercial fertilizer production leading to both positive (helping feed the global population of over 8 billion people) and negative (critical imbalance of nitrogen in the biosphere) impacts. Taking this paradox as a starting point, 2024 ACS GCI Rising Star in Green Chemistry Education Awardee Professor Michael Wentzel has worked with colleagues at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota to develop and implement a transformative study-abroad experience for undergraduate students. 

Augsburg’s study abroad course, "Science and Religion in Germany," takes place in Germany where students visit many of the physical locations where the Haber-Bosch process was developed and optimized in the early 20th century. In addition to Wentzel, the course is co-taught by Dr. Hans Wiersma; together, they facilitate student learning built around significant developments in science and religion with particular focus on ways those developments shaped history and the world we live in today. With this systems-based approach, students engage in an immersive, multi-disciplinary learning experience that includes pre- and post-tour assignments and compulsory daily blog posts that capture student impressions, reflections, and learning outcomes. 

This unique program ran successfully in 2017 and 2023, and this year, students will experience an added component: David A. Laviska (ACS GCI) will join for part of the program to network with the students and provide 2-3 class sessions on the relevance of green chemistry and systems thinking to the broader science landscape and students’ future careers. In addition to sharing information about ACS resources and opportunities for students, Laviska will invite Augsburg students to think about how they can share their own knowledge of green and sustainable chemistry with students at other higher education institutions. The GCI has set two relevant long-term goals: 1. Encourage “outside the classroom” activities for students that highlight the principles and value of green and sustainable chemistry, and 2. Facilitate inter-institutional student peer-to-peer mentoring that involves students (or student groups such as ACS Student Chapters) teaching or mentoring other students on everything from formation of student communities to outreach initiatives to study abroad programs and beyond.

Several highlights of this new collaboration between the ACS GCI and Augsburg’s study abroad program are shown below. Please contact David Laviska (ACS GCI) and/or Michael Wentzel (Augsburg) with any questions or for more information. 

 

Green & Sustainable Chemistry Highlights: 

Carl Bosch Museum: Focuses on chemical technology development, including the industrial-scale production of ammonia via the Haber-Bosch process.  

Philipps Universität Marburg: Dr. Eric Meggers will give a talk on his research in catalysis and sustainable chemistry.  

Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen: Dr. Nicole Graulich and her research group host a green and sustainable lab experiment followed by poster presentations about their work in chemical education research. 

 

Systems Thinking Highlights: 

Justus von Liebig Museum: Focuses on chemistry education and pedagogy, in particular Liebig’s “law of the minimum” for sustainable agriculture. Liebig also developed the Kalliapparat which is the glassware on the ACS logo! 

Atomkellermuseum: Examines nuclear research and its historical, ethical, and technological impacts at the site where Heisenberg and other German scientists worked.  

I. G. Farben & Wollheim Memorial Tour: Explores the complex interplay of industry, international conflict, and ethics in chemistry and materials science. 

Buchenwald Memorial Visit: The Buchenwald concentration camp memorial is a reminder of the people that endured the atrocities that took place there. 

By David A. Laviska, Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Andrew P. Dicks, Ph.D., Professor at University of Toronto, is the winner of the 2025 Career Achievement in Green Chemistry Education award. With achievements including more than two dozen publications about pedagogical innovations focused on green and sustainable chemistry and the creation of a “Focus in Green Chemistry” program at the University of Toronto, Dr. Dicks has been an important role model within the green chemistry community and has inspired instructors and students across the U.S., Canada, and beyond.

We are delighted to announce that Andrew P. Dicks, Ph.D. (Professor, University of Toronto) is the winner of the 2025 “Career Achievement in Green Chemistry Education” award. This award was established through the ACS Office of Sustainability to acknowledge an instructor who has made a profound and transformative impact on the future of green chemistry and sustainability in education through cumulative contributions spanning a significant portion of their career. Sponsored by the ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future through the Green Chemistry Institute, this award is given to a pedagogical innovator who has shown consistent creativity and innovation in the classroom, laboratory, and broader chemistry enterprise. Only instructors with a significant, impactful body of work are eligible for the Career Achievement award, which is meant to acknowledge career-long contributions to the application of green chemistry in all aspects of education. In addition to the engraved award, the winner receives a $5,000 honorarium and travel support to attend the annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference (GC&E) to receive the award and speak at an invited symposium programmed in their honor.

Dr. Dicks’ strong interest in green chemistry education and the development of novel curricular materials dates to 2004. At that time, he began developing undergraduate experiments at the University of Toronto (U of T) for organic laboratories that focused on greener solvent replacements (e.g., water, polyethylene glycol) along with solvent-free reactions. This introductory work focused on a “show and tell” approach to teaching green chemistry, which matured into the design of innovative experiments requiring a high degree of student input. Since then, he has authored more than two dozen publications about pedagogical innovations focused on green and sustainable chemistry in the classroom and laboratory for journals including the Journal of Chemical Education, the Chemical Educator, and Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews (GCLR). He was co-editor of two special issues of GCLR focused on “Advances in Green Chemistry Education” in 2019 and 2022 and served as Associate Editor of GCLR for five years. Dr. Dicks has also contributed ten book chapters and authored and/or edited or co-edited four textbooks on green chemistry, including “Green Organic Chemistry in Lecture and Laboratory” (2011, CRC Press).

Beyond his prolific publishing efforts, Dr. Dicks has worked to modernize the curriculum at U of T starting in 2008 with a brand-new junior course for chemistry program students called Organic Synthesis Techniques. His hands-on approach to course redesign and commitment to student learning form the basis for his role as faculty mentor to the U of T graduate student-run Green Chemistry Initiative (GCI), which he has held since it formed in 2012. As the chemistry department Associate Chair Undergraduate Studies (2019-present), he created a “Focus in Green Chemistry” program in 2021 in keeping with the department’s philosophy of embedding green chemistry approaches into a range of undergraduate courses across different sub-disciplines. Dr. Dicks has delivered more than 50 presentations and been a co-author on 21 other presentations at conferences including the GC&E, the ACS Biennial Conference on Chemistry Education, the Chemical Institute of Canada Canadian Chemistry Conference & Exhibition, and the IUPAC International Conference on Chemistry Education.

Dr. Dicks’ combined portfolio of achievements and collaborations led U of T to join the Beyond Benign Green Chemistry Commitment in 2016, becoming the first institution outside the U.S. to join this voluntary initiative meant to support the preparation of chemists whose skills are aligned with the needs of the planet and its inhabitants in the 21st century.

Beyond his pedagogical achievements, Dr. Dicks has been an important role model within the green chemistry community and has inspired instructors and students across the U.S., Canada, and beyond to reimagine the ways they teach. As an innovator, collaborator, instructor, facilitator, and mentor, Dr. Dicks has made a profound contribution to the field of green chemistry education and we at the GCI express our gratitude for everything he has done and continues to do toward preparing our students to work toward a more sustainable future.

Dr. Dicks will accept his award at the Opening Dinner and Awards Ceremony held at the 29th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, June 23-26, 2025.

To learn more about the ACS GCI Green Chemistry Awards for instructors, please visit Green Chemistry Funding & Awards - American Chemical Society.

By David Laviska, Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Student and instructor winners of the 2025 ACS Green Chemistry Institute and Office of Sustainability awards have been selected. A standing committee of volunteer reviewers faced the challenging task of selecting winners for each of the awards that best exemplify the spirit and intentions of the individual award descriptions.

By David Laviska, Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Student and instructor winners of the 2025 ACS Green Chemistry Institute and Office of Sustainability awards have been selected and will be celebrated at the opening dinner and second annual awards ceremony at the 29th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, June 23-26, 2025. The ACS GCI received an unprecedented response to the call for nominations for our five student awards in the fall of 2024. A standing committee of volunteer reviewers faced the challenging task of selecting winners for each of the awards that best exemplify the spirit and intentions of the individual award descriptions. We are delighted that all 14 student winners will join us at the GC&E conference where they will present their research and receive their awards. 

Making the event even more special, we will also be celebrating the winners of our Green Chemistry awards for instructors who have been working to advance green and sustainable chemistry in their teaching and research. We are delighted to celebrate the four individuals who were selected to receive the awards as shown in the list below. They all have succeeded in reimagining their own teaching while acting as role models for other instructors and the broader academic community. The instructor awardees will be invited to give brief remarks at the opening ceremony of the GC&E conference when they receive their awards. 

More detailed information about the student and instructor awardees will be included in separate articles to be published in the March and May editions of The Nexus. Please find a complete list of winners below: 

 

Instructor Awards 

Career Achievement in Green Chemistry Education Award: Andrew Dicks (University of Toronto) 

Teaching Green Award: David Vosburg (Harvey Mudd College) 

Rising Stars in Green Chemistry Education Award: Qi Dong (Purdue University) and Iris Yu (National University of Singapore) 

 

Student Awards 

Ciba Travel Award: Gabriela Torres Batista (Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, Ponce, PR), Alexander Broschek (Purdue University Northwest, Hammond, IN), Ulfet Ergogan-Uzunoglu (Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY), Endras Tia Fadhilah (University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY), and Kelsey Plasse (University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA) 

Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Award: Hailey Holshouser (University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL) and Sargun Singh Rohewal (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN) 

Joseph Breen Memorial Fellowship: Sarah Boudreau (Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NL, Canada), Emmanuel Fagbohun (Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON, Canada), and Sahar Gholami (University of Manchester, Manchester, UK) 

Nina McClelland Memorial Award: Christopher Koch (Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC) and Xin Liu (Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO) 

Heh-Won Chang, Ph.D. Fellowship in Green Chemistry: Swabiiha Buxoo (University of Mauritius, Mauritius) and Tom Nelis (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland) 

 

Join us in congratulating the winners! Explore all the awards, grants, scholarships, and fellowships the ACS offers on the Awards page.

By David Laviska, Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

To answer student questions and provide detailed descriptions of activities that enrich student knowledge and adhere closely to the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, the ACS will provide new, targeted guidance in the form of experiments.

By David Laviska, Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

 

Attention all ACS Student Chapters, chapter advisors, and affiliated people/groups! New guidance is being developed at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, in conjunction with ACS Division of Membership and Student Communities, that will support chapter activities that focus on green and sustainable chemistry. Over the past several years, more students and student chapters have been contacting ACS offices to ask for specific guidance on how they can increase their efforts toward learning about (and teaching others about) the principles of Green Chemistry. Many student chapters are interested in applying for the “Green Chemistry Distinction” – a special award acknowledgement given during the annual Student Chapter Awards Ceremony held every year at the Spring National Meeting of the ACS. Additionally, we observe that more and more students understand the relevance and importance of keeping Green Chemistry central to their learning, career training, and student organization activities. This is cause for celebration! 

In an effort to answer student questions and provide detailed descriptions of activities that enrich student knowledge and adhere closely to the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, the ACS will provide targeted guidance in the form of “laboratory-type” experiments that illustrate both green chemistry principles and their relevance to fundamental chemistry concepts that all students who take general and organic chemistry should know (or will learn as part of their required degree curriculum). The experiments will involve benign, non-toxic reagents and simple materials/equipment that are widely available at low cost. (They won’t need to be completed in the confines of a laboratory, either!) The chemistry concepts addressed in the experiments will be easy to understand and provide a clear mechanism for students to connect them to the principles of green chemistry and larger global sustainability issues. Student chapters will be given a variety of options for completing activities that satisfy the requirements for the Green Chemistry Distinction, thereby guaranteeing they will qualify for the award if they follow the instructions carefully. Learning goals and outcomes will be explicit, and ACS will expect specific feedback in the annual student chapter reporting process. 

This new initiative will roll out in stages according to the following timeline:

Spring 2025: Pilot phase. A limited number of ACS Student Chapters will be contacted and asked to participate in this project. One experiment will be sent to the selected chapters (everyone receiving the same guidance) and students will follow the guidance embedded in the instructions document. 

May/June 2025: Feedback. Targeted feedback will be collected from the student chapters involved in the Pilot phase. 

Summer 2025: Revisions and expansion. ACS will review collected feedback to improve guidance as needed and expand the portfolio of experiments to include a selection that will be made available for academic year 2025-26. 

Fall 2025: Full scale project launch. Starting in Fall 2025, all interested Student Chapters will be able to select one or more experimental protocols for use at their home institutions. 

Keep an eye out for additional updates concerning this exciting new initiative here on The Nexus blog as well as through additional ACS communication channels. If your Student Chapter wants to be part of the conversation, please email us at [email protected]. We will be happy to add you to the list of invited chapters for the full-scale roll-out in the Fall. We are excited to hear your feedback and look forward to seeing how much we can work together to propagate Green Chemistry throughout your activities! 

 

On the 20th anniversary of the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable, explore the resources and opportunities made available by this industry collaboration powerhouse.

Twenty years ago, on January 24, 2005, a unique and productive partnership between the pharmaceutical industry and the ACS Green Chemistry Institute officially launched—the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable (ACS GCIPR). Starting with only three founding members, today the Roundtable stands at more than 50. Its legacy of work demonstrates that scientific collaboration can accelerate innovative technologies and practices that have real sustainability impacts on the manufacture of medicines. This year, we invite the scientific community to explore the Roundtable tools and resources, participate in one of our many planned events, and see how the Roundtable plans to advance its mission in the next twenty years.

"The exponential growth of the ACS-GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable over the past 20 years highlights the industry’s awareness of the key role sustainability plays in today’s society with the Organization’s Global significance highlighted not just by its achievements but in the positive impacts it has had on the lives of the community it serves and most notably the patients," says Paul Richardson, 2024 co-chair of the Roundtable and Director, Analytical
and Synthesis Technologies, Pfizer.

10 Ways to Participate

1. Attend our UK Workshop: Join us for a day of scientific discussion with academic and industrial researchers on March 13 at the AstraZeneca site in Macclesfield, Cheshire, United Kingdom. Limited poster presentation slots available. Find out more and register now.
   
   
2. Attend GCIPR Symposium in the US: GCIPR will be organizing symposia at ACS Spring 2025 in San Diego, CA; the GC&E Conference in Pittsburgh, PA; ACS Fall 2025 in Washington, DC; and a fall workshop in Boston. Learn more about upcoming events.
   
   
3. Apply for a Research Grant: The GCIPR funds research in key areas of interest each year, as well as through their ignition grant program for innovative new research directions. Look for specific requests for proposals to be announced in March 2025.
   
   
4. Nominate Your Company for an Award: Nominations for four industry award categories are invited each fall. GCIPR awards highlight excellent industrial implementation of green chemistry in pharma, recognize outstanding efforts by CMOs, as well as innovations in Discovery Chemistry and AI and Data Science that advance sustainability in pharma. Find out more about the awards program.
   
   
5. For Graduate Students and Postdocs, Get Help Presenting at GC&E: The GCIPR provides $1200 reimbursements to support the travel of students who are accepted into the Sustainability in Organic Chemistry session they organize at the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. No application is needed; just submit your abstract into that session by February 17th for a chance to receive the funding.
   
   
6. Take an Online Course: Brush up on your green chemistry skills using the Roundtable’s Green Chemistry and Engineering Learning Platform (GChELP), a set of free online training materials to introduce topics in greener synthetic methodologies and processes. Modules walk you through greener process design, synthetic tools, solvent considerations, metrics, and more. Explore GChELP.
   
   
7. Learn How to Use a GCIPR Tool: There are now 14 tools and metrics available, including the ever-popular solvent guides and reagent guides. The newest tool to be released is the Acid-Base Selection tool, containing over 200 compounds. The interactive tool helps you filter by parameters and review EH&S data to find more sustainable options. Explore Tools.
   
   
8. Catch Up on Pharma Research: The ACS GCIPR has an ongoing biannual series with OPR&D summarizing “Green Chemistry Articles of Interest to the Pharmaceutical Industry.” Read the latest Articles of Interest (Sept 2024) or search for previous publications.
   
   
9. Explore the New ACSGCIPR Website: See everything the Roundtable is up to, including activities by focus areas, such as analytical chemistry, biocatalysis, peptide chemistry, supply chain considerations, and many more. https://acsgcipr.org/.
   
   
10. Join the Roundtable: If your company meets the definition of membership, and you share our passion for green chemistry & engineering, we encourage you to consider becoming a member. Read membership details and contact [email protected].

Contributed by the ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Discover the ACS's strategic plan for the next five years, focusing on the core values of Passion for Science, Lifelong Learning, Inclusion and Belonging, and Sustainability.

Contributed by the ACS Green Chemistry Institute

 The ACS Board of Directors has approved a new ACS Strategic Plan for 2025 – 2029. The plan, effective January 1, 2025, captures the dynamic nature of ACS and provides a clear path forward for the organization. It is built on the previous plan to ensure continuity. 

The plan focuses on supporting ACS’ global community, which includes members and all of those engaged with the organization. The plan also supports sciences broadly, with chemistry at the cornerstone. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR) principles are embedded throughout the plan, strengthening ACS’ efforts through action. DEIR principles are in our commitment and the core values of lifelong learning and inclusion and belonging, while the goals incorporate aspects of accessibility, equity, and belonging. 

Also included in the new plan is the core value of sustainability. Along with the other core values, strategic goals, mission, and vision this allows ACS to realize its commitment to improve all lives through the transforming power of chemistry.  

If you have questions about the Strategic Plan, please contact [email protected].  

Contributed by Timothy Sandrey, Program Coordinator at the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University

As the world faces pressing environmental challenges, the need for sustainable solutions has never been more critical. The Global GreenChem Innovation and Network Program aims to help innovators worldwide develop more sustainable solutions and advance the sound management of industrial chemicals and their waste through innovative green chemistry solutions.

Contributed by Timothy Sandrey, Program Coordinator at the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University

Train-the-Facilitators programs took place in each of the six beneficiary countries in 2024, including this one in Indonesia.

As the world faces pressing environmental challenges, the need for sustainable solutions has never been more critical. Green chemistry, designed to reduce or eliminate hazardous substances, is at the heart of this transformation. 

The Global GreenChem Innovation and Network Program (GGINP), implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), aims to help innovators develop more sustainable solutions in the chemistry sector and advance the sound management of industrial chemicals and their waste through innovative green chemistry solutions. Approved by the GEF in February 2022, the six-year, $12.6 million initiative strengthens protocols for controlling, reducing, and eliminating hazardous substances, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury, while fostering global collaboration and focused innovation. 

The program is executed by Yale University’s Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering in collaboration with government-backed counterparts in six beneficiary countries—Indonesia, Jordan, Peru, Serbia, Uganda, and Ukraine. These countries were selected based on their diverse industrial profiles, specific environmental challenges, and strategic relevance for GEF and UNIDO, and provide a rich testing ground for scalable green chemistry innovations. Yale’s leadership team, spearheaded by Principal Investigator Dr. Paul Anastas and Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Julie Zimmerman, together with a dedicated team of professionals, oversees the program's activities and supports implementation through capacity building, innovation, and the development of a global green chemistry network.  

Building a More Sustainable Economy 

The GGINP supports the transition to a greener, more sustainable economy by developing alternatives to traditional industrial practices in alignment with sustainable development goals. Central to this mission is UNIDO’s commitment to “Progress by Innovation,” promoting solutions featuring renewable resources, energy efficiency, and circular economy to combat climate change and build more resilient industries. 

A Global Partnership Network 

The program’s success hinges on a robust partnership network of National Cleaner Production Centers (NCPCs) in six countries: 

• Indonesia: Universitas Pertamina 

• Jordan: Royal Scientific Society 

• Peru: Grupo GEA 

• Serbia: Cleaner Production Centre of Serbia 

• Uganda: Uganda Cleaner Production Center 

• Ukraine: Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Center 

The annual Green Chemistry and Engineering (GC&E) Conference has further strengthened a deep global connection, providing a platform for representatives from all six NCPCs to showcase their progress and strategies.  

Each of the involved NCPC’s have tackled local sustainability challenges in their own ways, hosting successful hackathons and innovation challenges that foster collaboration and generate creative green chemistry solutions. 

Pilot projects, though still in the early stages, show significant promise: 

• Serbia is conducting a feasibility study with an e-waste recycling facility, focusing on the removal of harmful POP flame retardants from the recycling system. 

• Jordan is partnering with a thermal insulation company to phase-out harmful flame retardants from polystyrene materials. 

• Uganda is involved with local textile manufacturers and has already helped to remove ubiquitous PFAS from the supply chain. 

These initiatives underscore the program’s ability to address diverse environmental and industrial contexts effectively. 

Core Program Components 

The 2024 Green Chemistry and Engineering (GC&E) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia provided a platform for representatives from all six NCPCs to showcase their progress and strategies.

 The GGINP operates through three primary components: 

1. Global Communication Network 

The free-to-join Green Chemistry for Sustainability network connects entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, investors, and technical experts. This global communication hub fosters collaboration, knowledge exchange, and resource sharing, bridging gaps between diverse stakeholders. 

1. Green Chemistry Accelerator 

The accelerator component supports innovators in their development of sustainable practices through thorough technology selection, preparation, training, and finally up-scaling. The selected startups will benefit from access to a global network, focused mentorship, and connection to potential investment opportunities to ensure sustainable growth of their businesses. 

1. Industry Transformation 

This component focuses on replacing harmful substances—including persistent organic pollutants (POPs), hazardous chemicals, and mercury—with green chemistry alternatives. By targeting potential pilot companies from sectors like electronics, textiles, and plastics manufacturing, the program seeks to reduce environmental impacts and advance a more responsible handling of our resources. 

Program Steps and Impact 

The program follows a step-by-step approach to empower chemists and foster green chemistry innovations. In 2024, a major milestone was reached with the “Train the Facilitators” workshops, led by Program Director Dr. Lars Ratjen. These sessions equipped trainers with the skills needed to deliver impactful green chemistry training and build local expertise. 

Each of the six NCPC’s have hosted hackathons, where participants collaboratively develop green chemistry solutions for real-world problems. Moving forward, the program will host business incubator sessions, providing selected innovators with resources, mentorship, and funding opportunities to bring their solutions to scale. This phased structure ensures participants are progressively prepared to implement and advocate for greener chemistry practices in their respective industries. 

Looking Ahead 

The GGINP is poised to drive lasting change, influencing startup ecosystems, generations of scientists, industry practices, regulatory frameworks, and quality standards on a global scale. By building a dynamic community of stakeholders, accelerating green innovations, and supporting industry-wide transformation, the program is paving the way for green chemistry to become the global standard for chemical processes. 

To learn more about the Global GreenChem Innovation and Network Program, visit www.globalgreenchem.com.