Chemist Joseph DeSimone has been awarded the 2012 Walston Chubb Award for Innovation from the scientific research society Sigma Xi.
DeSimone is Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University.
The award recognizes research into new areas of potential scientific importance, novel approaches to a long-standing problem in science or engineering, or research that may create a new methodology of importance to science or engineering.
DeSimone’s projects include developing a nanoparticle vaccine for prostate cancer and creating particles that mimic red blood cells, potentially paving the way for the development of synthetic blood.
He has been named one of the “100 Engineers of the Modern Era” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and he received the 2008 Lemelson-MIT Prize, dubbed the “Oscar for inventors.”
DeSimone is a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and an adjunct member at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He also is co-founder of Liquidia Technologies, a Triangle-based nanotechnology company.
Sigma Xi is an international, multidisciplinary research society with nearly 60,000 members in more than 100 countries around the world. The society publishes the award-winning American Scientist magazine.
