M. Frederick Hawthorne, Ph.D.
Dr. M. Frederick Hawthorne is a world-renowned scientist in the fields of nano and molecular medicine, and a pioneer in boron chemistry. He currently serves as the founding Director of the University of Missouri International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine and Professor of Radiology, Chemistry and Physics at the University of Missouri, Columbia.
Dr. Hawthorne joined the Rohm and Haas Company, Redstone Arsenal Research Laboratory, Huntsville, Alabama in 1954, where he pioneered the chemistry of boranes. He became a Professor of Chemistry at UC Riverside in 1962, and in 1968 moved to the University of California, Los Angeles. The Regents elevated Dr. Hawthorne to University Professor, the most distinguished title for faculty, in 1998.
Dr. Hawthorne has been instrumental in the creation of the new field of polyhedral borane chemistry (carboranes, polyhedral borane anions, metallacarboranes and metallaboranes). These building blocks are finding use in nanoscience, biomedicine, catalysis and materials applications. An ongoing objective is the development of boron neutron capture therapy of cancer.
For 32 years Dr. Hawthorne served as Editor-in-Chief of Inorganic Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society. He has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. Throughout his career he has served as an advisor to various organizations in the Department of Defense.
Dr. Hawthorne has been honored by numerous national and international awards, honorary degrees and lectureships. He was the co-winner of the King Faisal International Prize in Science (2003), the highest scientific award of the Islamic world. He was named the 2009 Priestley Medalist, the premier award of The American Chemical Society. He has published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, and holds 35 patents.
Dr. Hawthorne received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from UCLA, and was a post-doctoral associate at Iowa State University.
