Francisco Named President-elect of American Chemical Society

Joseph S. Francisco, the William H. Moore distinguished professor of chemistry at Purdue University, has been named president-elect of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. Francisco will be president-elect in 2009 and take over as the society's president in 2010. He will be the second African-American, but the first from academia, named as president of the society, which was founded in 1876. The first African-American president was industrial chemistry leader Henry Hill in 1977. The society has more than 160,000 members in chemistry, chemical engineering and related fields. Francisco will succeed 2009 president Thomas H. Lane, a director with the Dow Corning Corp. and a 1974 Purdue chemistry graduate. Francisco said the theme for his term will be bridging the gaps for the future of the chemical enterprise through partnerships that engage industry, academia and government. He said he plans to work to attract a broader pool of students into the chemical sciences to keep the enterprise healthy, prepare all members to be able to thrive in a global economy, and promote innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability in the chemical sciences. Last year Francisco was awarded the Herbert Newby McCoy Award, Purdue's top research honor. The award is given annually to a student or faculty member in Purdue's science departments for making the year's greatest research contribution. Francisco, a native of Beaumont, Texas, earned his bachelor's degree in 1977 from the University of Texas and his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Cambridge University in England from 1983-85 and at MIT in 1985. He also was president of the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers from 2005-2007 and received the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists in 2001. He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2001 and a fellow at the American Physical Society in 1998.