Harry W. Gibson, of Blacksburg, Va, professor of chemistry in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, received the 2004 Alumni Award for Research Excellence.

The Alumni Association established the Award for Research Excellence in 1975 for the purpose of promoting research at Virginia Tech. To achieve this purpose, the Alumni Association annually awards two Alumni Awards for Research Excellence to two individuals, or research teams, who have reached a level of research achievement judged to be the most significant within the university.

Gibson’s research has focused on supra-molecular chemistry, "chemistry beyond the molecule," continuously supported by the National Science Foundation since 1987. This area, inspired by nature’s extensive employment of molecular recognition and self-assembly in enzymes and other site-specific processes, is now a major field, important not only to our understanding of natural systems, but increasingly in synthetic materials as well. The aim is to mimic the high degree of selectivity and binding strength observed in biological systems so that complex, hierarchical structures with targeted functional performance can be self-assembled from readily available molecular building blocks. This work is part of the growing field of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Gibson and his group pioneered the application of molecular recognition and self-assembly to the synthesis and characterization of novel polymer architectures, the polyrotaxane family, via "threading" cyclic molecules with linear polymeric molecules, forming molecular analogs of strings of pearls with potential applications ranging from electroactive materials and memory devices to drug delivery. The team has provided increased understanding of the driving forces for the threading processes through a combination of synthesis, careful quantitative studies, and X-ray crystallography. He and his students have developed the best host system for the viologen or paraquat family of guests, [2]pseudorotaxane complexes currently of great interest in molecular electronics and artificial molecular machines.

The Gibson group's efforts with fullerenes, in collaboration with Harry Dorn, professor of chemistry, and Luna nanoMaterials, are aimed at health-related imaging, such as X-ray, MRI, and PET, and target cancer radiotherapy. Work done with Randy Heflin, associate professor of physics, Richey Davis, associate professor of chemical engineering, and Kevin Van Cott, assistant professor of chemical engineering, all of the College of Science, is directed toward cheaper and better organic, multi-layer solar cells and non-linear optical components for telecommunication devices.

A native of Syracuse, N.Y., Gibson received his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from Clarkson University.

The College of Science at Virginia Tech gives students a comprehensive foundation in the scientific method. Outstanding faculty members teach courses and conduct research in biology, chemistry, economics, geosciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, and statistics. The college is dedicated to fostering a research intensive environment and offers programs in nano-scale and biological sciences, information theory and science, and supports research centers—in areas such as biomedical and public health sciences, and critical technology and applied science—that encompass other colleges at the university. The College of Science also houses programs in pre-medicine and scientific law.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.

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