Chemistry professor receives prestigious national honor

From a UNT News Service press release

Wes Borden, the Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry, has received the James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry, one of the American Chemical Society's most prestigious honors.

The award, established in 1963 to encourage and reward outstanding contributions to physical organic chemistry, will be presented to Borden at the national meeting of the ACS in Anaheim, Calif., next spring.

In his research, Borden uses a form of quantum mechanics called molecular orbital theory to carry out calculations designed to further the understanding of the structures and reactions of organic molecules.

"I am honored to have my name added to the list of previous winners of the Norris Award because the list contains the names of the scientists who have been the world's most respected physical organic chemists during the past 45 years," Borden says.

Borden has served the chemical community as associate editor of the Journal of American Chemical Society for the past 11 years and currently handles the peer review for about 400 manuscripts each year. He also has helped to organize several international chemistry research conferences.

Borden received his bachelor, master and doctoral degrees from Harvard University, where he served for five years as an assistant professor. Before coming to UNT in 2004, Borden worked at the University of Washington for more than 30 years. At UNT, he is a Distinguished University Research Professor and a member of the Center for Advanced Scientific Computing and Modeling (CASCaM).

He has been a recipient of the fellowships from the Sloan, Guggenheim and Humboldt foundations and from the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science. He has been a visiting professor at Princeton and Heidelberg universities and at the Institute for Molecular Science in Okazaki, Japan. Among his honors, Borden has received the Cope Scholar Award from the ACS and last year he was named to the inaugural class of ACS fellows. He also is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Sarah Bahari with the UNT News Service can be reached at sarah.bahari@unt.edu.

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