Paul Chirik
Paul is a leading expert in the application of catalysis to challenges in sustainable chemistry. He was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Doylestown, PA. In 1995, he graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in Chemistry from Virginia Tech under advisor Joseph Merola. Paul then earned his Ph.D. with John Bercaw at Caltech in 2000 studying the mechanism of metallocene-catalyzed olefin polymerization and hydrometallation chemistry.
Following a postdoc with Christopher Cummins at MIT, Paul joined the faculty at Cornell University in 2001 as assistant professor. In 2006, he was promoted to associate professor, and in 2009 he was named the Peter J. W. DeBye Professor of Chemistry. In 2011, he moved to Princeton University as the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry.
Among Paul’s many awards and honors are a CAREER award, a Packard fellowship, an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the Linus Pauling medal, the Rylander Award from BASF and, most recently, the Gabor Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Organometallics, and lives in Princeton with his wife, Karen, and two daughters.
Photo © 2017 American Chemical Society
Profile Sections
Paul Chirik
Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University
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Frick Chemistry Laboratory, 292
Department of Chemistry
Princeton, NJ 08544
Education
|
Ph.D. |
California Institute of Technology, June 2000 |
|
B.S. |
Virginia Tech, Magna Cum Laude, In Honors, May 1995 |
Experience
| Edwards S. Sanford Professor, Princeton University | 2011 – present |
| Peter J. W. DeBye Professor, Cornell University | 2009 – 2011 |
| Associate Professor, Cornell University | 2006 – 2009 |
| Assistant Professor, Cornell University | 2001 – 2006 |
| Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2000 – 2001 |
Selected Honors and Awards
| Gabor Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis | 2021 |
| Catalysis Society of South Africa (CATSA) Eminent Visitor | 2021 |
| Linus Pauling Medal (postponed to 2021) | 2020 |
| Rylander Award in Catalysis Sponsored by BASF (postponed) | 2020 |
| Eni Award, Advanced Environmental Solutions Prize | 2019 |
| ACS Catalysis Lectureship for Advancement of Catalysis Science | 2017 |
| Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award | 2016 |
| Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, American Chemical Society | 2009 |
| Bessel Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation | 2008 |
| Camille Dreyfus-Teacher Scholar | 2006 |
| Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award | 2005 |
| David and Lucile Packard Fellow in Science and Engineering | 2004 |
| NSF CAREER Award | 2003 |
| Herbert Newby McCoy Award for Outstanding Dissertation, Caltech | 2000 |
Selected Synergistic Activities
| Editor-in-Chief, Organometallics | 2015 – present |
| Associate Chair, Department of Chemistry, Princeton University | 2020 – present |
| ACS Sustainable Development Advisory Council | 2021 – present |
| Chair, Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences Contractor’s Meeting | 2017 |
| Associate Director for External Partnerships, Andlinger Center | 2015 – 2016 |
| Defense Science Study Group | 2010 – 2011 |
Selected Named Lectureships
| Thomas Lecture, University of Missouri | 2021 |
| Fishel Lecture, Vanderbilt University | 2021 |
| Novartis Lecture (postponed) | 2020 |
| Behringer Simon Lecture – ETH Zürich (postponed) | 2020 |
| Jefferson Lecture, University of Virginia | 2020 |
| Frontiers Lecture, Max Planck, Kohlenforschung | 2019 |
| ICI Lecture, University of Calgary | 2018 |
| Richard Walton Lecture, Purdue University | 2017 |
| Allergan Lecture, University of California – Irvine | 2017 |
| Singapore Nanyang Distinguished Lectureship | 2017 |
| J. Clarence Karcher Lecture, University of Oklahoma | 2017 |
| Xingda Lecturer, Peking University | 2015 |
| Closs Lecturer, University of Chicago | 2014 |