Prof. James D. Wuest
Jim Wuest was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1948. He studied chemistry and mathematics at Cornell University, where he received an A.B. summa cum laude in 1969. He did his graduate work in organic chemistry at Harvard University, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow and a student of the late Nobel Laureate Robert B. Woodward. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1973, he joined the faculty at Harvard as an assistant professor of chemistry. He remained at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School until 1981, when he accepted a tenured position at the Université de Montréal. He has been a full professor since 1986 and currently directs a research group of 15-20 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Supramolecular Materials. He and his group are broadly interested in the design, synthesis, structure, and properties of molecular materials.
In 1988, Prof. Wuest was elected Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada and received the Merck Sharp & Dohme Award, which is given annually by the Canadian Society for Chemistry for outstanding work in organic chemistry carried out in Canada by a scientist under 40 years old. In 1992, the Royal Society of Canada awarded him its Rutherford Memorial Medal, which recognizes exceptional research in any area of chemistry done in Canada by a scientist under 40 years old. In the same year, he also received a Killam Research Fellowship from the Canada Council, which recognizes conspicuous achievement in the arts, sciences, or letters. In 1996, Prof. Wuest was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 1999 he received a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which recognizes outstanding accomplishments and promise in research or the arts. He was awarded the 2001 Alfred Bader Award in Organic Chemistry, which is given annually by the Canadian Society for Chemistry to recognize excellence in research in organic chemistry carried out in Canada by a scientist under 60 years old. In 2005, he was selected by the American Chemical Society as an Arthur C. Cope Scholar.
