Green Chemistry: Its Role in Building a Sustainable World

Speakers

Paul Anastas, PhD

Yale University
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Paul T. Anastas joined Yale University as Professor in the Practice of Green Chemistry with appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Department of Chemistry, and Department of Chemical Engineering. In addition, Anastas serves as the director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale. From 2004–2006, Anastas served as director of the Green Chemistry Institute in Washington, D.C. He was previously the assistant director for the environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where he worked from 1999–2004. Trained as a synthetic organic chemist, Anastas received his PhD from Brandeis University and worked as an industrial consultant. He is credited with establishing the field of green chemistry during his time working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the chief of the Industrial Chemistry Branch and as the director of the U.S. Green Chemistry Program. Anastas has published widely on topics of science through sustainability, such as the books Benign by Design, Designing Safer Polymers, Green Engineering, and his seminal work with co-author John Warner, Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice.

Richard Wool, PhD

University of Delaware
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Richard Wool is the ACRES program director (The Affordable Composites from Renewable Resources) at the University of Delaware. Wool is affiliated with the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials. He received a bachelor of science degree from University College Cork, Ireland, and a master of science degree and doctorate from the University of Utah. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Chemical Society, the Materials Research Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Society of Plastic Engineers, and the Neutron Scattering Society. He is a founding member of the Bio/Environmentally Degradable Plastics Society.

Wool is the recipient of numerous awards including the Innovations in Real Materials Award from the International Society for Innovation in Materials Research, the Technical Innovation Award for Composites Excellence, with Russel Fisher, from the Composite Fabricators Association. In 2000 he was a Discover Award semifinalist.

Joseph M. DeSimone, PhD

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Joseph M. DeSimone is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. He is director of the NSF Science Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes, a collaborative endeavor connecting the research goals, resources, and expertise of five universities spanning the areas of chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, information and library sciences, psychology, and education. He is also director of the new UNC Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology (IAM). DeSimone was also chairman (1996–2003) and co-founder of Micell Technologies, Inc, a company which pioneered the highly celebrated CO₂ dry cleaning technology to replace the undesirable solvent perchloroethylene. In 2002, DeSimone co-founded BioStent with Richard Stack, William Starling, and Robert Langer to develop and commercialize polymeric drug eluting stents for cardiovascular applications. DeSimone has written more than 220 refereed articles and has issued over 100 patents.

DeSimone is the recipient of numerous regional and national awards. He was most recently elected, College of Fellows, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2006) and Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2006). In addition to receiving the 2005 ACS Award for Creative Invention, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2005) and the National Academy of Engineering (2005) for the "development of environmentally friendly chemistries and processes for the synthesis of materials, especially new fluoropolymers."

Angelo DePalma

Angelo DePalma is a freelance science writer living in Newton, New Jersey.
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