2012 Walston Chubb Award for Innovation
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society selected Joseph
DeSimone to receive the 2012 Walston Chubb Award for Innovation. The Chubb Award is designed to honor and promote creativity among scientists and engineers.
Dr. DeSimone was selected for the Chubb Innovation Award for successfully adapting lithographic techniques from the computer industry to create a new technology for fabricating precisely defined micro- and nanoparticles for applications including new vaccines and therapeutics.
In an interview with Cathy Clabby (American ScientistContributing Editor), DeSimone describes his journey as an innovative and entrepreneurial scientist, the power of cross-disciplinary research, the process of moving innovation from the laboratory to society, the value of diversity in a research team, his exciting collaboration with the Gates Foundation, and the challenges to future innovation.
DeSimone Biography
Joseph DeSimone is the Chancellor's Eminent Professor of
Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Chemical Engineering at NC State University and of Chemistry at UNC-CH; and Director of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-CH. He is also an Adjunct Member at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences (2012) and the National Academy of Engineering (2005). DeSimone has published over 290 scientific articles and holds over 130 patents. He has received over 50 major recognitions, including the 2012 Walston Chubb Award for Innovation by Sigma Xi; the 2010 AAAS Mentor Award in recognition of efforts to advance diversity in the chemistry PhD workforce, the 2009 NIH Director's Pioneer Award, the 2009 North Carolina Award and the 2008 Lemelson-MIT Prize. DeSimone received his BS in Chemistry from Ursinus College in 1986 and his PhD in Chemistry from Virginia Tech in 1990.