Harry B. Gray, Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, has been named winner of the 1991 Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society's highest honor. Gray's research has focused on inorganic photochemistry and artificial photosynthetic systems. In addition, he has conducted research on electronic structures of iron- and copper-containing proteins, and on chemical reactions that involve transfers of electrons between metal centers in proteins. In May, Gray received the American Institute of Chemists' Gold Medal (The Scientist, April 2, 1990, page 27). He earned his B.S. from Western Kentucky State University in 1957 and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1960. The Priestley Medal was instituted by ACS in 1922 to commemorate the work of Joseph Priestley, the British-born discoverer of oxygen who emigrated to America in 1794. Gray will receive the award at next spring's ACS national meeting in Atlanta.
Mary Ellen Chandler Harper ...