The Carolina-Piedmont Section of the American Chemical Society is pleased to name Regents’ Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Jean-Luc Brédas from the Georgia Institute of Technology as the 2009 winner of the Charles H. Stone Award. This award is given annually by the section to the most outstanding chemist in the southeastern United States, recognizing contributions in the field of chemistry through activities in the scientific community, public outreach, education, and research.

Professor Brédas joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2003 afgter holding faculty positions at Université de Mons, Belgium, and the University of Arizona. Professor Brédas is a world leader in the theoretical description of conjugated polymers and oligomers used in the fields of organic electronics and photonics.

During Professor Brédas' career, he has published over 750 peer-reviewed articles in major journals and holds the distinction as one of the 100 most-cited chemists in the world. he has trained over 35 graduate students and 40 post-doctoral associates, many holding faculty positions at prestigious institutions around the globe.

Professor Brédas currently serves as one of the journal editors for Chemistry of Materials as well as on the Editorial Advisory Board of two other major journals. From 2001-2007, he was an active member of the European Research Advisory Board promoting outreach aimed at increasing participation of women in science and the Trans-Atlantic mobility of researchers. Working with the National science Foundation's Science and Technology Center in "Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research", Professor Brédas and his group have helped in the establishment of a Ph.D. program in materials Science at Norfolk State University, a Historically Black College, through the sharing of course developments.

Professor Brédas' scientific achievements have also resulted in his receiving the two highest scientific distinctions in Belgium, the Francqui Prize, and the Quinquennial Prize of the Belgian National Science Foundation. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and is an inaugural Fellow of the Materials Research Society and the American Chemical Society.

For more information contact Prof. Cliff Calloway from the Carolina-Piedmont Section of the ACS.