Three Chemists’ Lifetime Achievement Celebrated this Summer

Three UT Austin chemistry professors—Jonathan Sessler, Dave Thirumalai and Stephen Martin—were awarded lifetime achievement awards this summer.

Sessler received the Thomas Dougherty Award for Excellence in Photodynamic Therapy at the 10th International Conference on Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines (ICPP-10) in Munich, Germany organized by the Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines (SPP). Sessler's research focuses on designing and developing molecules tailored to solve specific medical or biological problems, including cancer. Much of his research currently focuses on pyrrole chemistry.

Thirumalai, chair of the Department of Chemistry, was the recipient of the 2018 Oesper Award presented by the University of Cincinnati Department of Chemistry and the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society. The award recognizes chemists for a lifetime of significant accomplishments in the field of chemistry. The Thirumalai Group tries to solve how large biomolecules, such as DNA and proteins, fold, through theoretical and computational strategies. Thirumalai has gained recognition in the past for his work in protein and RNA folding.

Martin has been named a 2018 American Chemical Society Fellow. The fellows program honors members of the ACS who have made significant accomplishments to the field of chemistry, the profession and ACS. Martin's research currently focuses on the synthesis and production of natural and unnatural compounds that have a variety of medicinal or biological applications. These compounds are usually targets for novel tools or therapeutic goals due to their complex structure.