For
release: Oct. 5 , 2007
Contacts:
John Corbett, Materials Chemistry and
Biomolecular Materials, (515) 294-3086
Saren Johnston, Public Affairs, (515) 294-3474
AMES LAB’S JOHN CORBETT HONORED WITH AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY’S F. ALBERT COTTON AWARD
AMES, Iowa –John Corbett, a senior chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, has been selected to receive the American Chemical Society’s 2008 F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry. Established in 2002, the $5,000 award recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves by demonstrating creativity, imagination and outstanding synthetic accomplishments in the field of inorganic chemistry. The Cotton Award is funded by the F. Albert Cotton Endowment Fund, supported by the late F. Albert Cotton, one of the world’s foremost inorganic chemists. Corbett is the fifth recipient of the award.
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With his selection for the Cotton Award, Corbett has now received all three awards in inorganic chemistry given by the American Chemical Society. The first was in 1986, when he received the ACS Inorganic Chemistry Award. Then, in 2000, he received the ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry.
Corbett, who is also an ISU Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a professor of chemistry, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. His research interests lie within the more specialized field of synthetic inorganic solid-state chemistry, which he said has historically been the “forgotten child” of inorganic chemistry. Noting that, Corbett recalled getting a letter from Al Cotton congratulating him on winning the 1986 ACS Inorganic Chemistry Award (the first of his three ACS awards). “Al praised me for sticking to my guns in staying with the solid state,” he said.
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Corbett will receive the Cotton Award at the 2008 ACS spring meeting in April in New Orleans, where he will present an award address on his research in inorganic solid-state chemistry, including his investigations into strong metal-metal bonding. A symposium in Corbett’s honor will follow the award address and will include many of his former students and postdoctoral associates.
“John has very few peers who are as innovative and productive at discovering and characterizing novel inorganic compounds,” said Gordon Miller, Corbett’s friend and colleague, who is an Ames Laboratory associate and an ISU chemistry professor. “There are even fewer who share his breadth of creativity. During his career, John has made seminal contributions and discoveries in molten salts, metal-rich halides, intermetallics, quasicrystals and Zintl phases, and he has developed techniques that are widely used in the synthetic solid-state chemistry community today.”
Continuing, Miller said, “John and his group not only prepare new materials, but characterize them, which demands high yields and purities of these products. His impact on the discipline of solid-state chemistry is tremendous and continues – the library of compounds coming from his laboratories can keep condensed matter scientists, both theorists and experimentalists, active for years.”
Numerous honors, awards and achievements mark Corbett’s 55-year career at Ames Lab. He has served as a division chief and program director in the Ames Laboratory and as the chair of the ISU Chemistry Department. He is a recipient of the Spedding Award given in recognition of excellence and achievement in research centered on the science and technology of the rare earths. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has received a Senior Scientist Award from the Humboldt Foundation and two Department of Energy Awards for Outstanding Scientific Accomplishments and Sustained Research in Materials Chemistry.
A prolific writer, Corbett has published 438 professional papers and had just submitted his 439th at the time of this press release. He has mentored 41 Ph.D. students and 67 postdoctoral fellows.
Commenting on his research, he said, “We’re lucky. We keep finding amazing things and we’re knowledgeable enough to know these are ‘spectaculars’ – really novel things.”
In a life filled with accomplishments, Corbett views his successes in an endearing, somewhat humble and matter-of-fact way. “One secret of being a success,” he said, “is to live a long life and stay healthy.”
Ames Laboratory, a U.S. Department
of Energy Office of Science laboratory celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2007, is
operated for the DOE by Iowa State
University. The Lab conducts research into various areas
of national concern, including energy resources, high-speed
computer design, environmental cleanup and restoration, and
the synthesis and study of new materials.
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