Professor William Dichtel, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA has been awarded the Fourth Polymer International–IUPAC Award. This award is given in recognition of significant and creative contributions to the fields of applied polymer science or polymer technology and the winner is selected by a Scientific Committee, representing Polymer International and the IUPAC Polymer Division. The prize will be presented at the IUPAC World Polymer Congress – MACRO 2014 in July in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where Dichtel will give the award keynote lecture.

William Dichtel is honored for his application of synthetic and supramolecular chemistry to provide unprecedented control of the structure and properties of organic materials and interfaces.

William Dichtel, born in Houston, USA, studied chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA. In 2005, he obtained his Ph.D. for research carried out under the guidance of Professor Jean M. J. Fréchet at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. He then took up a joint postdoctoral appointment for Professor James R. Heath, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA, and Professor J. Fraser Stoddart, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. In 2008, he became an assistant professor at Cornell University and he has since been promoted to associate professor.

Dichtel’s research involves functionalization of carbon-based materials, energy storage devices, and molecular electronics.

Selected publications by Dichtel:

• Improving the Binding Characteristics of Tripodal Compounds on Single Layer Graphene,
  J. A. Mann, W, R. Dichtel,
  ACS Nano 2013, 7 (8), 7193–7199.
  DOI: 10.1021/nn402599x
• Direct Detection of RDX Vapor Using a Conjugated Polymer Network,
  D. Gopalakrishnan, W. R. Dichtel,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135 (22), 8357–8362.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja402668e
• Preservation of Antibody Selectivity on Graphene by Conjugation to a Tripod Monolayer,
  J. A. Mann, T. Alava, H. G. Craighead, W. R. Dichtel,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 3177–3180.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201209149