Western is home to Linus Pauling Medal award symposium and banquet Oct. 11

Stephen L. Buchwald, the Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been awarded the 2014 Linus Pauling Medal Award, for "outstanding contributions to chemistry meriting national and international recognition," and will be honored at a symposium and banquet from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11, at Western Washington University’s Viking Union Multipurpose Room.

The symposium is free and open to the public. The banquet begins at 6 p.m. (ticket required), with a poster session and reception from 5 to 6 p.m. Registration and ticket-price information for the banquet can be found online.

The Linus Pauling Medal Award has been given annually since 1966 by the Puget Sound, Oregon, and Portland Sections of the American Chemical Society. The award is named after its first winner Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, a native of the Pacific Northwest. Many of the past award winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Buchwald’s research combines the elements of organic synthesis, physical organic chemistry, and organometallic chemistry to devise catalytic processes of use in solving problems of fundamental importance. In 1984 he began as an assistant professor of chemistry at MIT. He was promoted to associate professor in 1989 and to professor in 1993, and was named the Camille Dreyfus Professor in 1997. During his time at MIT he has received numerous honors. In 2000, he was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2008 he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Science. He is the coauthor of more than 400 published or accepted papers and 43 issued patents. He serves as a consultant to a number of companies and is an associate editor of Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis and Chemical Science.

The symposium and banquet are sponsored in part by the Puget Sound Section of the American Chemical Society, BP, Strem Chemicals, and ACS Publications.

For information about the award, banquet, or symposium, contact John Gilbertson, Western Washington University assistant professor of Chemistry, at 360-650-2790 or John.Gilbertson@wwu.edu.