Wilbur Cross Medal for Alumni Achievement

A distinguished physical chemist, your scholarship linking molecular spectroscopy to atmospheric science has left a mark in the areas of environment and public health.

Through groundbreaking research, you unmasked sunlight-mediated processes in planetary atmospheres, opening Pandora’s box of complex reactions occurring at the air-water interface. Your insights are especially important in understanding how airborne particles affect air quality, climate, and, consequently, health. You have demonstrated the surprisingly important role of vibrational photochemistry in the transformation of atmospherically important molecules.

The paradigms for photophysics you study have far-reaching implications, including big questions like the physical and chemical processes at play in the origin of life. In addition, your findings influenced studies on ozone pollutants and climate change. Your profound influence on the science community is evidenced by your many prestigious honors, including your election to the National Academy of Sciences.

Beyond your scientific achievements, you’re a passionate advocate at the national level, organizing symposia, delivering lectures, and advising U.S. science policy. A true leader, you served as Chair of the University of Colorado’s Chemistry Department, and you mentor women in the physical sciences, a discipline that remains dramatically underrepresented. You were the first woman to be appointed assistant professor of chemistry at Harvard, and to receive a PhD in chemistry at Yale.

In recognition of your extraordinary achievements in scholarship, chemistry education, and national service, the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association proudly awards you its highest honor, the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal.

Nozik is a world-renowned leader in the science and technology of solar energy production. He understands the underlying physical and chemical processes at their most fundamental molecular levels and translates this knowledge into practical solutions. As senior research fellow (emeritus) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), scientific director of the Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion, and research professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, he has identified and clarified the fundamental issues that limit the performance of solar cells and has designed new materials and new nanometer-sized structures to address these limitations. His research at NREL set the standards for solar cell performance. His recent work is at the forefront of research into a process known as “multiple exciton generation,” which will result in higher efficiencies by producing more than one electron per photon absorbed.

Nozik has published more than 250 papers and 50 book chapters, written or edited 7 books, delivered over 365 invited talks at universities and conferences, and holds 11 patents.

His honors include the Heinz Gerischer Award of the European Section of the Electrochemical Society, 2013; the Gustavus Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest, American Chemical Society Northeastern Section, 2011; and the international ENI Prize, presented by the president of Italy in 2008. The Journal of Physical Chemistry, where he was senior editor for 12 years, dedicated a “Festschrift” issue in his honor in 2006. He has served on numerous editorial boards, advisory committees and panels (at least 10 for the U.S. Department of Energy alone), and has taken on countless leadership roles in organizing conferences, symposia, and workshops.

Read his biography. 

Paul Wender is the Francis W. Bergstrom Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and a leader in the field of “green chemistry” — environmentally responsible chemistry. He was awarded his Ph.D. from Yale in 1973. He is a pre-eminent architect of complex molecule assembly, used to produce taxol and other molecules with medical applications. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has also won teaching prizes at Stanford.

Laura L. Kiessling, the Hilldale Professor of Chemistry and the Laurens Anderson Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, does research that merges synthetic chemistry with biology, and in the process, creates new fields of study. Her awards include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (“genius grant”) and election to the National Academy of Sciences. She joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in 1991, where she quickly rose through the ranks. In her research, she uses her training as an organic chemist to design and synthesize molecules that mimic natural molecules that take part in the life and functioning of the cells of the human body. Her work tracking what happens when the synthetic molecules enter into, or in some cases block, bodily processes is helping to explain these processes at the molecular level. Kiessling investigates a wide range of forms in which proteins occur, and specializes in carbohydrate-mediated biology.