Editorial announcement: DSM Performance Materials Award 2008 for Craig J. Hawker

Abstract

It is with great pride and pleasure that the Editors of the Journal of Polymer Science, Part A: Polymer Chemistry congratulate our fellow editor, Professor Craig J. Hawker of the University of California, Santa Barbara, on being awarded the inaugural DSM Performance Materials Award 2008. The DSM Performance Materials Award forms part of DSM's Innovation Awards Program and is being presented for the first time in 2008, in cooperation with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The award will be granted every two years and, in addition to being an award of high recognition of excellence in bringing scientific achievements to technological breakthroughs, includes a cash prize of EUR 50,000. An award presentation will be held during the IUPAC Macro 2008 Meeting in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 30, 2008. Craig will deliver an award address, which will be followed by an award symposium on the theme: “Controlled building up of functional systems”. Professor Hawker, an acknowledged international leader in the design, synthesis and study of several innovative performance materials, received this award on the basis of his fundamental and applied contributions to the advancement of polymeric performance materials. Professor Hawker is the Director of the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a National Science Foundation-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. He is a professor of Materials and also of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where his research group is making advancements toward several unique types of polymers and nanostructured materials for application in areas as diverse as electronics and biotechnology, but with a particular emphasis on innovative chemistries as well. His approach to the development of materials from the molecular level to the nanoscale likely originates from his diverse educational background. He received a B.Sc. (Hons) degree and University Medal in Chemistry from the University of Queensland in 1984 and a Ph.D. in bioorganic chemistry from the University of Cambridge in 1988, conducting his dissertation research under the supervision of Prof. Sir Alan Battersby. He entered the polymer chemistry field during his postdoctoral research associate position in the laboratory of Professor Jean M. J. Fréchet at Cornell University from 1988 to 1990. Craig then returned to the University of Queensland as a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow from 1991 to 1993, where he continued to develop innovative strategies for the preparation of macromolecules having controlled compositions and architectures. From 1993– 2004, he was a Research Staff Member and an investigator in the National Science Foundation-supported Center for Polymer Interfaces and Macromolecular Assemblies at the IBM Almaden Research Center, during which some of his most well known contributions were to materials for microelectronics, living nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization, among others. Craig has been honored by receipt of the 2000 Young Scientists Award from IUPAC, the 2001 Carl S. Marvel Award in Creative Polymer Science, the 2003 Cooperative Research Award with Professor Thomas P. Russell, the 2004 Industrial Scientist Award, the 2005 American Chemical Society Award in Applied Polymer Science, the 2005 Dutch Polymer Award and the 2007 Herman Mark Scholar Award. Craig is also an Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at the University of Queensland and serves as a consultant to a variety of US and international companies. Craig has a well respected and highly visible reputation nationally and internationally for his quality of research, his dedication to science and his leadership roles in the scientific community. As Editors, we are honored to have his presence and contributions to the Journal of Polymer Science, Part A: Polymer Chemistry, the impact of which has been significant toward the continued increase in quality and stature of the journal, as quantified by ten consecutive years of increasing impact factors. Craig, congratulations indeed! Bert Meijer, Virgil Percec, Mitsuo Sawamoto, Karen L. Wooley