Dr. Ahmed H. Zewail, who has pioneered the field of femtochemistry, has been named the 1997 recipient of the Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry. The Welch Foundation, based in Houston, annually presents the award, which consists of a $300,000 monetary prize, a certificate, and a gold medallion, to recognize outstanding contributions to chemistry for the betterment of humankind.

PASADENA— Scientists have designed a polymer that could vastly improve the way diabetics measure their blood glucose levels. The polymer is described in the current issue of Nature Biotechnology.

According to Dr. Frances Arnold, a professor of chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, the polymer is superior to the current enzyme-based glucose detectors because it is not of biological origin. The polymer will be easier to make and thus lead to cheaper and more reliable glucose sensors.

PASADENA—Chemists have found a way to repair DNA molecules that have been damaged by ultraviolet radiation. The research is reported in the March 7, 1997, issue of the journal Science.

PASADENA—Chemical engineers have successfully demonstrated a new method of crystallizing proteins, an important and notoriously difficult problem in biochemistry. The new approach is reported by researchers from Caltech and the University of Washington in the April 30 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

PASADENA—Caltech chemist Peter B. Dervan is a corecipient of the 1996 Grand Prix from the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie, a French scientific society.

The prize is given each year to reward original work in chemistry that benefits humanity, life, society, or nature. Dervan shares the 1996 prize, which brings with it 150,000 French francs (about $30,000), with Professor Claude Hèléne of France's National Museum of Natural History.

PASADENA—Caltech engineers have shown for the first time that an experimental technique known as directed evolution can solve real, industrial problems in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

The result, published in the April 1 issue of Nature Biotechnology, describes how the researchers used directed evolution to develop a new enzyme that is able to catalyze—increase the reaction rate of—an important step in the manufacture of an antibiotic.

PASADENA—Fred Anson, professor of chemistry at Caltech, has been appointed the first Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemistry. Anson, a Caltech alumnus and a member of the faculty since 1957, was chair of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from 1984 to 1994.

Born in Los Angeles, Anson received his bachelor's degree from Caltech in 1954 and his doctorate from Harvard in 1957. He returned to Caltech as an instructor in chemistry that same year and was named assistant professor of chemistry in 1958, associate professor in 1962, and full professor in 1968.

PASADENA—The California Institute of Technology's Chemistry Animation Project has completed the first six titles in a series of broadcast-quality educational chemistry videotapes and has released them for sale to teachers and to the public.

The videos illustrate many of the three-dimensional concepts that are central to the basic chemistry curriculum, but that can be difficult to visualize.

PASADENA—Penelope Kneebone, who started graduate school in environmental chemistry this fall at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calfornia, has received the first Pickering Fellowship ever awarded. As a Pickering Fellow, Kneebone will have all her expenses paid during her first year of study.

Jacqueline Barton, professor of chemistry at Caltech, will discuss her research on "Chiral Metal Complexes and DNA: Recognition and Reaction," at 9:55 a.m. on Friday, September 15, at Rockefeller University in New York City.