Description

The Peter J. Dunn Awards were established in 2016 by the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable (ACS GCIPR) to recognize excellence in the research, development and execution of green chemistry that demonstrates compelling environmental, safety and efficiency improvements over current technologies in the pharmaceutical industry and its allied industrial partners. The inaugural award was given to Peter J. Dunn of Pfizer, and the award was subsequently named in his honor.

The awards recognize greener and more sustainable synthetic routes and their associated processes to Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) or intermediates, reaction conditions, and chemical or manufacturing process technologies across modalities.

The submission should highlight the green and sustainable chemistry accomplishments at meaningful scale and must detail their significance (e.g., reduction in process mass intensity, waste reduction, robustness, environmental, health and safety impact reduction or elimination, reduction in the use of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, solvents, reagents, etc.). The innovations should be significant and ones that go beyond routine process development optimization.

The awards will be presented at the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. The recipient, or a member of the winning team, will be invited to share their technology in an oral presentation at this event. The recipient’s transportation, lodging and registration fees for the conference are reimbursable up to $2,500 USD (additional funds available for international travel following ACS guidelines). The recipient or winning team will also receive a plaque recognizing the achievement and certificates will be given to each team member.

Eligibility

New accomplishments relative to the design principles of green chemistry at meaningful scale are eligible for this award. Nominations must detail the significance (i.e., in yield, waste reduction, robustness, environmental impact, reduction of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, etc.) of the chemistry or engineering.

The Peter J. Dunn Award recognizes the accomplishments of individuals—whether they be individual contributions or as part of team efforts. Therefore, the ACS GCIPR strongly encourages individuals to apply. However, please note that this is not a career achievement award, rather the focus is on a specific innovative technology developed by the nominee. Nominations may also include teams of up to ten people.

The goal is to recognize both pioneering industrial scientists, as well as the best of green chemistry innovations, to inspire all pharmaceutical scientists (or allied industrial partners) to ever greater sustainability.

Note: Previous winning submissions from the EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award are not eligible.

Application

Please use our online application portal to submit your application.

Nominations are due December 1, 2024 at 11:59 EST (GMT-5).

Examples of Successful Submissions:

• Merck’s 2021 Peter Dunn Award Nomination
• Takeda’s 2020 Peter Dunn Award Nomination

A panel of industry peers will evaluate the applications. Up to two awards may be given per cycle.

Chemistry enhances lives across the globe and green chemistry is the path to enhanced sustainability. The ACS GCIPR looks forward to receiving your submission to be considered as the best at pharmaceutical green chemistry development.

Description

The CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award seeks to recognize outstanding efforts by CMO companies in pharmaceutical green chemistry in support of pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing that demonstrate compelling environmental, safety and/or efficiency improvements.

The award intends to recognize greener advances in synthetic route development for starting materials, intermediates or active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), including reaction conditions and chemical or manufacturing technologies.

The submission should highlight the green and sustainable chemistry accomplishments at meaningful scale and must detail their significance (e.g., reduction in process mass intensity, improvement in RPG (iGAL), waste reduction, robustness, environmental, health and safety impact reduction or elimination, reduction in the use of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, solvents, reagents, etc.).

The award will be publicly presented at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute’s Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. The recipient, or a member of the winning team, will be invited to share their technology in an oral presentation at this event. The speaker’s transportation, lodging and registration fees for the conference are reimbursable up to $2,500 USD (additional funds available for international travel following ACS guidelines). The option to present virtually is also available this year. The recipient or winning team will also receive a plaque recognizing the achievement and certificates will be given to each team member.

Chemistry enhances the quality of life and green chemistry is the path to enhanced global sustainability while delivering these benefits. The ACS GCIPR looks forward to receiving submissions for consideration for the CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award.

Eligibility

Accomplishments relative to the design principles of green chemistry at meaningful scale are eligible for this award. Nominations must detail the significance (i.e., in yield, waste reduction, greenness (RPG), robustness, environmental impact, reduction of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, etc.) of the chemistry or engineering.

The CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award seeks to recognize CMO company-level accomplishments that highlight a strategic commitment to green chemistry and engineering innovation and to greater industrial sustainability.

Nominees do not have to be members of the American Chemical Society nor the ACS GCIPR.

Application

Please use our online application portal to submit your application.

Nominations are due December 1, 2024 at 11:59 EST (GMT-5).

A panel of industrial pharmaceutical scientists will evaluate the applications and recommend a winner. Notifications will go out in early 2025.

Chemistry enhances lives across the globe and green chemistry is the path to enhanced sustainability. The ACS GCIPR looks forward to receiving your submission to be considered as the best at pharmaceutical green chemistry development.

Description

The Data Science and Modeling for Green Chemistry award aims to recognize the research and development of computational tools that guide the design of sustainable chemical processes and the execution of green chemistry that demonstrates compelling environmental, safety, and efficiency improvements over current technologies in the pharmaceutical industry and its allied industrial partners.

The award will be publicly presented at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute’s Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. The recipient, or a member of the winning team, will be invited to share their technology in an oral presentation at this event. The speaker’s transportation, lodging and registration fees for the conference are reimbursable up to $2,500 USD (additional funds available for international travel following ACS guidelines). The recipient or winning team will also receive a plaque recognizing the achievement and certificates will be given to each team member.

Eligibility

The computational invention can take the form of algorithms and/or software tools. All inventions that leverage machine learning, data science, and/or other computational modeling techniques are in scope. Submissions should both highlight the technological breakthrough and show how the tool is specifically designed for end-users to drive towards greener processes (see selection criteria). Both academic and industrial research groups are eligible. Nominees do not have to be members of the American Chemical Society or the ACS GCIPR.

Application

Please use our online application portal to submit your application.

Nominations are due December 1, 2024 at 11:59 EST (GMT-5).

To use the portal, you will need to have or create a free ACS ID.

Please be prepared to submit the following information in the portal:

• Contact information of nominator
• Contact information of nominee(s)
• Title of green chemistry technology
• Focus area selection:
  • Predictive tools for designing greener or safer reagents, processing conditions, or reaction outcomes
  • AI platform technologies that have wide application across the pharmaceutical industry or have been used in the development of a drug on significant scale
  • In silico approaches that minimize/reduce experimentation to arrive at superior reaction conditions
• Abstract (300 words) – Describe the technology, the problem it addresses, and its benefits regarding the Design Principles of Green Chemistry and engineering. Include the degree of implementation and transferability to manufacturing. Also, include any quantitative benefits such as the (potential) amounts of hazardous substances eliminated, energy saved, carbon dioxide emissions eliminated, and water saved.
• Detailed description (max 3 pages) – The judges will evaluate the problem, chemistry, and realized or potential benefits.
  • Problem. Describe the challenges that existed prior to application of the new technology.
  • Chemistry. Describe the scientific merits of the new computer-assisted technology, emphasizing novelty, scientific merit and application to solve a challenging problem.
  • Potential or realized benefits. Detail the benefits to human health and environment by evaluation of your technology against the Design Principles of Green Chemistry, such as reduced toxicity of process materials, more reactive or sustainable catalyst design, minimization of experiments, reduction to PMI, optimization of yield/selectivity or similar benefit.
• References

Selection Criteria

1. Innovation and Novelty: The tool should demonstrate a high degree of innovation in implementing computational and modeling techniques for designing environmentally friendly processes in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
2. Environmental Impact: The tool should effectively address and mitigate environmental impacts associated with pharmaceutical production, such as reducing waste generation, carbon emissions, water usage, and energy consumption.
3. Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness: The tool should provide resource-efficient solutions, thereby reducing costs associated with green manufacturing practices. It should demonstrate the ability to improve process efficiency and optimize resource utilization.
4. Safety and Toxicity Prediction: The tool should incorporate accurate predictive models to assess the safety and toxicity profiles of chemical reactions, helping in the identification and design of less hazardous or non-toxic compounds.
5. Versatility and Applicability: The tool should be applicable to a wide range of chemical reactions or processes within pharmaceutical manufacturing, ensuring its versatility for various green chemistry challenges.
6. Integration with Other Tools/Software: The tool should have the potential to seamlessly integrate with other in silico tools or software commonly used in pharmaceutical manufacturing, enhancing its overall utility and interoperability.
7. User-Friendly and Intuitive Interface: The tool should have a user-friendly interface, ensuring ease-of-use and accessibility to a broader audience, including researchers, process chemists, and other stakeholders.
8. Validation and Reliability: The tool should have a strong validation framework, demonstrating reliable and accurate results through comparison with experimental data or benchmark studies.
9. Openness and Availability: The tool should have an open-source or commercially available license that allows easy access and promotes collaboration, thus benefiting the broader scientific community.
10. Proven Impact and Success Stories: The tool should showcase successful case studies or testimonials that highlight its positive impact on reducing the environmental footprint and improving sustainability in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Judging

A panel of industrial pharmaceutical scientists will evaluate the applications and recommend a winner. Notifications will go out in early 2025.

Purpose

To recognize outstanding efforts in discovery chemistry that demonstrate compelling environmental, safety and/or efficiency improvements through green chemistry and engineering.

Description

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable recognizes industrial chemists who have developed more sustainable and green technologies, which either have the potential to or have already had a significant impact within the area of discovery/medicinal chemistry (specifically of biologically-active molecules).

The following five focus areas are integral to the discipline of early-stage discovery chemistry, and each provides opportunities for sustainable innovation. The nomination should state with which focus area it is most closely aligned, though submissions that highlight green chemistry/sustainability improvements in other aspects of the discovery process are also welcomed. 

1. Improvements on sustainable protocols for final product isolation from complex reaction mixtures.
2. Advances on automated and parallel synthesis strategies (including miniaturization) that improve the efficiency of a given process, enable solvent selection or facilitate the generation of libraries of compounds for testing.
3. Forge non-conventional pathways and synthetic strategies integrating green chemistry principles. This involves overcoming experimental challenges that ensure environmental benignity and high efficacy.
4. Novel SAR (Structure Activity Relationship) strategies to improve the sustainability of ADME optimization campaigns including those developed through computational approaches or in vitro assays.
5. Innovative molecular design to expedite lead compound identification and/or consider aspects of long-term biodegradation of biologically active molecules.

The 2025 award will be presented at the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. The recipient, or a member of the winning team, will be invited to share their technology in an oral presentation at this event. The recipient’s transportation, lodging, and registration fees for the conference are reimbursable up to $2,500 USD (additional funds available for international travel following ACS guidelines). The recipient or winning team will also receive a plaque recognizing the achievement and certificates will be given to each team member.

Eligibility

Accomplishments relative to the design principles of green chemistry are eligible for this award. Nominations must detail the significance (i.e., in yield, waste reduction, greenness (RPG), robustness, environmental impact, reduction of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, etc.) of the chemistry or engineering.

The Green Discovery Chemistry Award seeks to recognize a specific innovation or technology from industry within the area of discovery/medicinal chemistry which if implemented more broadly within the discovery chemistry community will have a substantial bearing on attaining future sustainability goals. Although the award is given to the individual or team that contributed to the development of the technology, it is not a career achievement award, nor is it intended to cover more than one project. Nominations may also include teams of up to ten people.

Nominees do not have to be members of the American Chemical Society or the ACS GCIPR. The award is open to nominees from any country.

Deadline

Nominations are due December 1, 2024 at 11:59 EST (GMT-5).

How to Apply

Applicants should submit through the ACS Green Chemistry Institute application portal. To use the portal, you will need to have or create a free ACS ID.

Please be prepared to submit the following information in the portal:

• Contact information of nominator
• Contact information of nominee(s)
• Title of green chemistry technology
• Focus area selection
• Abstract (300 words) – Describe the technology, the problem it addresses and its benefits regarding the Principles of Green Chemistry highlighting the improvements over current state of the art approaches. Highlight the degree of implementation and if possible, applicability to a drug or biologically active compound discovery program. Also, benefits such as the (potential) amounts of hazardous substances eliminated, energy saved, carbon dioxide emissions eliminated, and water saved should be quantified if realistic though a qualitative analysis of the overall advantages of new technologies is also acceptable.
• Detailed description (max 3 pages) – The judges will evaluate the problem, chemistry, and realized or potential benefits.
  • Problem. Describe the challenges that existed prior to your improvements.
  • Scientific Development. Describe the development of your new technology emphasizing novelty, scientific merit, and application.
  • Potential or realized benefits. Detail the benefits to human health and the environment by evaluating your technology using the principles of green chemistry, (such as reduced toxicity of process materials or intermediates, design for degradation, reduction or elimination of hazardous substances and process intermediates, etc.) as compared to existing benchmarked workflow or process.
• References

Judging Process

A panel of industrial pharmaceutical scientists will evaluate the applications and recommend a winner.

Notifications

Notifications will go out in early 2025.

Sponsor

ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable (GCIPR)

Contact Information

Questions about the award should be directed to the ACS Green Chemistry Institute®.

• Email gcipr@acs.org (preferred)
• Telephone +1 (202) 872-6102