On Wednesday, March 30, at 6:00 p.m. in the San Francisco Marriott Hotel, the Outstanding Young Investigator and the Graduate Student Awards were presented during the Plenary Session, which was followed by a reception.

PLENARY SPEAKER George M. Whitesides Harvard University (view biography) Topic The Intersection of Biology and Materials Science (view abstract)

Abstract
The Intersection of Biology and Materials Science

This talk discussed some of the problems and opportunities for research at the intersection of two of the most vital fields of modern science: biology and materials.

Biography

George M. Whitesides received an AB degree from Harvard University in 1960 and a PhD from the California Institute of Technology (with J.D. Roberts) in 1964. He was a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963-1982. He has been a member of the Harvard University faculty, where he is the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, from 1982 to the present.

His present research interests include physical organic chemistry, materials science, biophysics, surface science, complexity, microfluidics, self assembly, micro- and nanotechnology, and cell-surface biochemistry.

Whitesides has served as an advisor to the National Research Council, National Science Foundation, Defense Science Board (1992-2002), National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense (DARPA DSRC, 1984-present), DTRA Treat Reduction Advisory Committee (1998-present), and the Intelligence Science Board (2003-present).

Honors include the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Pure Chemistry (1975), James Flack Norris Award (ACS, New England Section, 1994), Arthur C. Cope Award (ACS, 1995), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Award for Significant Technical Achievement (1996), National Medal of Science (1998), Von Hippel Award (Materials Research Society, 2000), Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award (Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, 2003), Kyoto Prize (2003), Paracelsus Prize (Swiss Chemical Society, 2004), Ralph and Helen Oesper Award (Cincinnati Section of ACS, 2004), and the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine (2004).

Whitesides is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences , Institute of Physics, and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.