The Wheeler Lecture Prize, awarded over the years to many of the world’s most esteemed chemists, was recently presented by the University College Dublin School of Chemistry to Paul T. Anastas, professor of epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) at the Yale School of Public Health, and Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment.
The Wheeler Lecture Prize, the highest award given by the UCD School of Chemistry, is presented only occasionally, not on a regular basis. Anastas is its first recipient since 2013/2014.
You don’t see large clouds of chlorine; you don’t see lakes of cyanide...
Paul Anastas
Considered the “father of green chemistry,” Anastas visited UCD for two days, delivering the Professor Thomas S. Wheeler lecture, “Rethinking Sustainable Molecular Design,” on May 31. He also signed a glass wall at UCD, joining in the tradition shared by other chemists who previously delivered Wheeler lectures, Nobel prize winners among them.
Green chemistry, also called nature-based chemistry and sustainable chemistry, focuses on the design of products and processes that minimize or eliminate the use of hazardous substances.
“When you replace a carcinogen with sugar or starch to make a bio-based plastic, that’s green chemistry,” Anastas said in a 2021 interview.
“There are reasons why nature does things differently than we do,” he said in the same interview. “You don’t see large clouds of chlorine; you don’t see lakes of cyanide, because nature does things by imparting reactivity when and where it needs it. So we don’t have all of this reactivity and toxicity in nature-based chemistry.”
Anastas has championed the development of green chemistry networks operating in more than 30 countries, resulting in advances such as bio-based plastics. The biggest challenge for green chemistry, however, is C02 emissions. Presently, green chemists are developing methods of converting carbon dioxide into carbon-neutral fuels.
Anastas said he is proud to receive the Wheeler Lecture Prize for the attention it brings to this global community of green chemists “who are doing brilliant research to make the world more sustainable in the future,” he said.
Anastas received the 2021 Volvo Environment Prize, considered one of the world’s most respected environmental prizes.
The Professor Thomas S. Wheeler Lecture was established 1964 to commemorate the renowned chemist who was head of the department (now school) of chemistry at University College Dublin from 1945 to 1962.