News of MRS Members/Materials Researchers

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use of non-precious metal cathodes for low- and intermediate-temperature thinfilm SOFCs is indeed feasible. The results are of major relevance to microscale energy conversion devices for portable appli-

cations, and future devices will likely use similar SOFCs as power sources. Also, very recently, the researchers reported low-temperature electrochemical characterization of the ultrathin LSCF cathodes

and have obtained mechanistic insights into their performance in micro-fuel cells (Journal of Power Sources, DOI: 10.1016/ j.jpowsour.2009.04.024). GOPAL RAO

News of MRS Members/Materials Researchers George M. Whitesides to Receive Inaugural Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences George M. Whitesides, the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University, has been named to receive the inaugural Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences for revolutionizing the chemistry of soft materials. The prize, to be given biennially by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, recogGeorge M. Whitesides nizes exceptional and original research in a selected area of chemistry that has advanced the field in major ways. Conferred this year in materials chemistry, the prize consists of a monetary award of $250,000, a citation, and a medal. The award ceremony will be at Harvard University on September 30, and will include a lecture by Whitesides. Whitesides has developed powerful methods for the creation of new materials that have significantly advanced the field of chemistry and its societal benefits. His research extends across multiple disciplines, centered on chemistry, but touching

biochemistry, drug design, and materials science. His work extends to the engineering of functional systems and the applications of these systems in areas ranging from biology to microelectronics. He has opened broad new technological avenues and has impacted human health in significant ways. Whitesides’s research in materials chemistry has become an essential part of materials synthesis programs around the world. Among Whitesides’s many innovations are the synthesis and molecular organization of new classes of materials, pioneering self-assembled monolayers and microfluidic systems to enable the development of new drugs and extend soft materials into the world of three-dimensional microelectronics, and into consumer devices such as solar cells. Within this work he developed soft lithography, a set of methods for printing and molding organic-based substances to make complex patterns at the micron and nanometer level. Whitesides combined these approaches for creating materials with the concept of polyvalency and developed a new paradigm for drug design. This has resulted in affordable medical diagnostics expected to have a major impact on health in the third world as well as new drugs that manage cholesterol, improve dialysis, and combat

MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 34 • JULY 2009 • www.mrs.org/bulletin

multiple drug-resistant pathogens. Whitesides has received many awards. Among those from the American Chemical Society ar