2003 Monie A. Ferst Award
University of California at Los Angeles chemist M. Frederick Hawthorne was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, graduated from Pomona College and received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at UCLA. Following postdoctoral work at Iowa State University, he joined the Rohm and Haas Company, Redstone Arsenal Research Division in Huntsville, Alabama, as a senior research chemist. In 1956, Hawthorne launched his career in borane cluster chemistry by organizing and leading the Organometallic Chemistry Group at Rohm and Haas, Redstone. He later served as a laboratory head with the company in Philadelphia. In 1962, he became a full professor at the University of California, Riverside, transferring to his present position at the Los Angeles campus in 1969. In 1998 he was appointed University Professor of Chemistry. Hawthorne is the author or co-author of more than 510 research papers, 32 patents and nine book chapters that reflect the joint efforts of approximately 200 Ph.D. students and postdoctoral associates and 11 Ph.D. co-workers at Rohm and Haas, Redstone. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Hawthorne has received the UCLA McCoy and Seaborg Awards for Contributions to Chemistry and numerous awards from the American Chemical Society (ACS). He was the first recipient of the Boron USA Award for Distinguished Achievements in Boron Chemistry. His other honors include the ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry. He has also received a Chemical Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists and the Willard Gibbs Medal and the Basolo Medal from the Chicago Section of the ACS.