Madix wins 2010 Gabor A. Somorjai Award

Robert J. Madix, Senior Research Fellow in Chemical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Charles Lee Powell Professor, Emeritus, at the Stanford School of Engineering, has received the 2010 Garbor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Work in Catalysis by the American Chemical Society (ACS).

ACS recognized Madix's role in establishing the molecular foundation for elementary surface reactions on single crystal catalytic metals. He has also contributed significantly to the understanding of partial oxidation reactions on silver surfaces, the dynamics and kinetics of adsorption and surface reactions and the atomic-scale imaging of reactive processes on surfaces.

Madix obtained his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1961, where he was also a three year letterman in varsity baseball, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965.

After a one year postdoc with Carl Wagner at the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry in Gottingen, Germany, he began his academic career at Stanford University where he remained until 2005.

He was chairman of the Department from 1982 – 1985. In 2005 he accepted the position of Senior Research Fellow at SEAS.

Madix has received a Humboldt Senior Scientist Prize, the Alpha Chi Sigma Award of the AIChE, the Paul Emmett Award of the North American Catalysis Society, the Adamson Award of the American Chemical Society and the Albert Award of the International Institute of Precious Metals.

The Garbor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Work in Catalysisconsists of $5,000 and a certificate. Up to $2,500 for travel expenses to the meeting at which the award will be presented will be reimbursed. The award was established by the ACS Board of Directors in 2002. It is supported by the Gabor A. and Judith K. Somorjai Endowment Fund. A prior ACS Award for Creative Research in Homogenous or Heterogeneous Catalysis sponsored by the Shell Oil Foundation was established in 1997.