https://www.acs.org/funding/awards/kenneth-hancock-memorial-award.html

Purpose

The Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Award provides national recognition and honor for outstanding student contributions to furthering the goals of green chemistry through research and/or studies. This includes but is not limited to the research, development, and implementation of fundamental and innovative chemical technologies that incorporate the principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture, and use, and that have the potential to be utilized in achieving national pollution prevention goals.

Description

The recipient of the award receives a one-time cash prize of $1,000. The award is presented at the annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. In addition to the monetary award, transportation, lodging, and registration fees for the conference are reimbursable up to $1,000

Award Scope and Objectives

Green chemistry is defined as the use of chemistry for source reduction, the highest tier of the risk management hierarchy as described in the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. More specifically, green chemistry involves a reduction or elimination of the use or generation of hazardous materials—including feedstocks, reagents, solvents, products, and byproducts—from a chemical process. Green chemistry encompasses all aspects and types of chemical processes, including synthesis, catalysis, analysis, monitoring, and separations and reaction conditions that reduce impacts on human health and the environment relative to the current state of the art.

Applications for the Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Award must describe studies or research that the student has participated in that address the scope and objectives of green and sustainable chemistry and/or engineering. The activity should address one or more principles of green and sustainable chemistry and/or engineering and, more specifically, address one or more of the following three green chemistry focus areas:

Focus Areas

• The use of greener synthetic pathways. This focus area involves designing and implementing a novel, greener pathway for a chemical product. Examples include synthetic pathways that:

• Use feedstocks that are of lower inherent hazard to humans or the environment, and/or that are renewable (e.g., biomass, natural oils)

• Use novel reagents or catalysts, especially those that use earth-abundant metals, organocatalysts, biocatalysts, and microorganisms. Precious metal (i.e., Pt, Pd, Ru, Rh, Ag, Os, Ir, Au) containing catalysts at concentrations greater than 10 ppm are strongly discouraged unless these are heterogeneous and greater than 95% recyclable.

• natural processes, such as fermentation, or use biomimetic processes

• Are atom- and/or step-economical

• Are convergent syntheses

• The use of greener reaction conditions. This focus area involves improving conditions other than the overall design or redesign of a synthesis. Greener analytical methods often fall within this focus area. Examples include reaction conditions that:

• Replace hazardous chemicals (starting materials, reagents, etc.) and solvents with chemicals and solvents that have a lower impact on human health and the environment.

• Use solvent-less reaction conditions and solid-state reactions

• Use novel processing methods that prevent pollution at its source

• Eliminate energy- or material-intensive separation and purification steps

• Improve energy efficiency, including reactions running closer to ambient (T and P) conditions

• The design of greener chemicals. This focus area involves designing and implementing chemical products that are less hazardous than the products or technologies they replace. Examples include chemical products that are:

• Less hazardous (environmental, health, and safety) than current products

• Inherently safer with regard to accident potential

• Recyclable or biodegradable after use

• Safer for the environment (e.g., do not deplete ozone or form smog)

Eligibility

The award is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of citizenship or country of study. One or two awards are typically given annually. If two Hancock Awards are given in one year, one of the awards will be given to an undergraduate student and the other to a graduate or post-graduate student (a recent graduate who completed his/her graduate degree after May 1, 2023).

The award will be presented at the 2024 Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. The Hancock winner must give an oral or poster presentation during the conference as well as submit a report to ACS GCI on his/her experience after the conference in order to receive reimbursement.