Princeton University chemist and Nobel Prize winner David W.C. MacMillan will be awarded the Science and Technology Medal at the 2022 Edison Patent Awards, the highest honor given out at the annual event sponsored by the Research & Development Council of New Jersey.
The event, to be held Nov. 3 at the Liberty Science Center, honors the best and the brightest of the state’s innovators and patent holders.
Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli (Chairman’s Award) and state Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (Educator of the Year) also will receive individual honors.
In addition, 54 inventors representing 14 patents awarded to New Jersey companies and universities will be honored. The recognized patents range from consumer plastic packaging that can be recycled to an unmanned vehicle that can seamlessly move from underwater into the air.
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The patent award winners came from the following companies:
- BASF
- Celularity
- Colgate-Palmolive
- Ethicon
- Kulite Semiconductor Products
- Merck
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
- Siemens Healthineers
- Siemens Technology
- Stryker
And the following universities:
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Rowan University
- Rutgers University
Winners were selected by a team of R&D Council researchers who evaluated patents for the significance of the problem, utility/socioeconomic value, novelty and commercial impact. All winning patents must have at least part of the technical/scientific work completed in New Jersey.
The Science & Technology Medal is awarded annually by the R&D Council to New Jersey innovators who have achieved outstanding and unparalleled advancements in the fields of science and technology and have extraordinary performance in bringing innovation from the laboratory to the marketplace.
MacMillan will receive the medal for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis — a new type of catalyst that is greener than traditional metal catalysts. This innovation has transformed organic chemistry, leading the world to a new means of constructing drugs and materials.
MacMillan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2021 for this work.
Kevin Campos, chairman of the R&D Council board of directors and vice president, head of process research and development at Merck, said the event shines a spotlight on the innovation and discovery that is taking place in New Jersey.
“The Edison Patent Awards is once again uplifting the inventors and companies that make New Jersey a global innovation leader,” he said. “Thomas Edison’s legacy lives on through the 57 honorees who are driving innovation and changing the world right here in the Garden State.”
