2021 Banners ChemicalSciences
Peter Schultz, Scripps Research, received the 2021 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences.
Schultz has made innovative and pioneering contributions to the interface between chemistry and biology, notably the exploitation of molecular diversity in the synthesis of new medicines and materials, and the rational expansion of the genetic code.
Schultz has demonstrated that traditional chemical tools used together with modern cellular and molecular biology methods can enable chemists to manipulate cellular machinery in amazing new ways. For example, his work has allowed us to add new building blocks to the genetic code, removing a billion-year constraint on living organisms.
Schultz has also harnessed molecular diversity to create new catalysts, medicines and materials—first in reprogramming the immune system to make enzyme-like catalysts, and more recently developing and applying the use of large combinatorial libraries to find new materials and innovative drugs for aging, cancer, and infectious disease.
Coauthor of over 600 scientific publications, Schultz is a founder of nine companies that have pioneered the application of molecular diversity technologies to address multiple challenges in human health and materials science.
The NAS Award in Chemical Sciences is presented annually to honor innovative research in the chemical sciences that contributes to a better understanding of the natural sciences and to the benefit of humanity. The NAS Award in Chemical Sciences was established in 1978 and supported by Occidental Petroleum Corporation from 1978 to 1996. The Merck Company Foundation assumed sponsorship in 1999. The award is presented with a medal and a $15,000 prize.
