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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! 

 

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  Over the past 25 years, Green Chemistry has provided a unique forum for the publication of innovative research on the development of alternative sustainable technologies, efficient utilisation of resources and the concomitant minimisation of waste. We are delighted to bring together a very special issue containing articles by members of the green chemistry community as well […]

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].  

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