2024 Heroes of Chemistry celebrated at ceremony in Washington, DC

“The heroes here tonight are not make-believe heroes from Marvel Comics, but real-life heroes who have made an impact on everyday lives,” Albert G. Horvath, CEO, American Chemical Society, said in opening remarks at the Heroes of Chemistry Awards banquet on Oct. 10 in Washington, DC.

Teams from AbbVie, Amgen and Bristol Myers Squibb, Corteva Agriscience, DuPont, and Savannah River Mission Completion received 2024 Heroes of Chemistry Awards. The scientists were recognized for their acts of service to society, which include advancing treatments for certain immune-mediated diseases and plaque psoriasis, creating an environmentally favorable herbicide for rice, innovating more energy-efficient insulation, and creating methods for cleaning up Cold War–era nuclear waste.

The Heroes of Chemistry Awards are prestigious awards for industrial chemical scientists and engineers and act as a scientific hall of fame for materials, drugs, and other products of chemistry that contribute to the betterment of humankind. The American Chemical Society has inducted awardees into this hall of fame since 1996.

“These teams do not work in isolation: their success is inextricably tied to the efforts of other colleagues and the vision and support of their senior leadership,” Mary K. Carroll, ACS president, said. “These senior leaders invest in their people and their science, understand its implications, and advocate for both research and researchers.”

This year’s company teams and their commercialized products are:

As of 2019, 13 million people worldwide have moderate or severe rheumatoid arthritis, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and 16.5 million people in the US have atopic dermatitis, according to the National Eczema Association; these are known as immune-mediated diseases. In the medical care sense, these represent a significant unmet need. Creating effective treatments for these diseases can help reduce the burden of the disease on the patient as well as caregivers and the health-care system.

Rinvoq, or upadacitinib, is an oral JAK inhibitor that treats certain immune-mediated diseases, like psoriatic arthritis or Crohn’s disease. The drug interferes with the ability of certain inflammatory proteins to react with each other, reducing inflammation in patients.

“The path to Rinvoq . . . was not without significant challenges or difficulties; however, this team persevered through strong collaboration, the courage to push boundaries, and tireless dedication . . . ,” said Philip Kym, vice president of small molecule therapeutics and platform technologies and head of global medical chemistry at AbbVie. “The development of the final solid form for upadacitinib was elusive, and it took years to find the final solid form.”

To find the molecule with the right attributes, about 1700 analogs were synthesized, characterized, and tested before finding upadacitinib. The drug is approved in more than 70 countries for effective use across rheumatology, dermatology, and gastroenterology therapeutic areas.

As of 2016, 100 million people worldwide are affected by a form of psoriasis, as reported by WHO.

Otezla, or apremilast, is an oral nonbiologic that treats plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and oral ulcers associated with Behcet’s disease. As a pill that treats all severities of plaque psoriasis, it is the first and only approved oral treatment of its kind, and it is the only approved treatment of oral ulcers associated with Behcet’s disease. Otezla also treats active psoriatic arthritis.

“As with any drug development story, there are many human stories that emerge . . . the team exploring the chemistry was very small and very new to drug discovery, therefore were more open-minded to explore things others may have overlooked . . . ” said Martin Eastgate, executive director, chemical process development, product development, global product development and supply, Bristol Myers Squibb.

The drug was first synthesized in 1999 and first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2014. In addition to its success rate in treating plaque psoriasis, a health-care cost study of US administrative health claims between 2014 and 2015 for United Healthcare Group shows Otezla costs patients in the US less than they would pay for biologic treatments. The drug is approved in 53 countries.

“It is rare that an inventor of a molecule does both the discovery, the development, and successfully launches the science to support the substance manufacturing—carrying the product literally from inception all the way to market,” Eastgate said.

“It’s worth taking a moment to marvel at the remarkable journey and the challenges that were overcome to put that food at our table. Globally, approximately 250 million people face food insecurity. We have a crisis to feed the world, and rice is one of the crops that plays a key role in ending this crisis,” said Vid Hegde, vice president, crop protection discovery and development, Corteva Agriscience.

Rinskor active—or Loyant—herbicide, is a broad-spectrum herbicide to control broadleaf and sedge weeds. The US Environmental Protection Agency gave Rinskor active the reduced risk pesticide designation specifically for rice and aquatics use, a designation given for the product’s reduced risk to human health compared with alternatives. Rinsksor active rapidly degrades in soil and water, meaning it doesn’t linger in the environment for long periods, reducing negative effects like groundwater contamination and toxicity to organisms like birds and fish.

The commercialization of the herbicide required a multiyear collaboration among chemists, analytical, formulations, engineers, biologists, and regulatory partnering with the commercial organization.

Styrofoam was first commercialized in 1941. Since then, it has been innovated and reinvented many times. Styrofoam is used in applications for things such as building insulation, below-grade walls and foundations, refrigeration, and vegetative roofs.

“It’s no surprise that customers and society at large expect products and materials to be safe and sustainable. We know that; we’ve heard reference to the principles of green chemistry,” said Alexa Dembek, chief technology and sustainability officer at DuPont. “That’s table stakes today; this team of Dupont scientists knew though that it was table stakes a decade ago. This team has worked together for over a decade on this journey, focusing on product reformulations that dramatically reduce greenhouse emissions, all while delivering increasing requirements for energy and building efficiency.”

Styrofoam offers improved energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings. The most recent focus has been on reducing the embodied carbon of the product. A part of this has been reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with building operations. A DuPont study, originally published in 2011, estimated that by 2022, the cumulative net benefit of these insulation products is 6.7 billion metric tons CO₂-eq.

Dupont intends to continue to innovate Styrofoam in response to global sustainability needs.

During the Cold War era, the production of nuclear weapons created about 100 million gallons of radioactive waste. This waste was stored in underground tanks at two different sites: Hanford and Savannah River.

“One of the things I find so impressive and unique . . . is the degree of sustained cooperation, integration, and pragmatism over multiple decades between government, national lab, and private sector,” said Thomas, D. Burns Jr., chief engineer, Savannah River Mission Completion. “In the nuclear industry—both commercial and government arenas—the road is proverbially littered with large-scale projects that will not be able to be completed due to costs, technical difficulties, or both. The technical challenges, realizing the hazards, regulatory complexities, and federal funding uncertainties create an environment where sustaining large nuclear enterprises through successful completion over multiple decades across multiple organizations is extremely difficult or darn near impossible.”

The waste is a risk to both humans and the environment and is a costly line item in the US Department of Energy’s overall budget. In 2022, the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site began the task of decontaminating 33.5 million gallons of nuclear using two chemical processes they developed that remove harmful radioactive isotopes from the tank waste. The caustic-side solvent extraction process uses molecular recognition principles, and the actinide-recovery process uses a layered inorganic ion exchanger. The accuracy of these two processes in tandem decontaminates the salt waste to a level that allows it to be mixed with a concrete waste.

Nominations open Nov. 1 for the 2025 Heroes of Chemistry Awards. Requirements and more information can be found at acs.org/funding/awards/heroes-of-chemistry.