Ralph Hirschmann Inducted into Chemistry Hall of Fame
July 2007
Emeritus Research Professor Ralph Hirschmann has been named by the American Chemical Society (ACS) to the Division of Medical Chemistry Hall of Fame. Inductees are recognized for their overall outstanding contribution to medicinal chemistry through a combination of research, teaching and service. The ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame was established in 2006. Three scientists are inducted each year.
Before coming to Penn in 1987, Ralph Hirschmann was senior vice president for basic research at Merck & Co., Inc., where he had worked since 1950. He also had a concurrent appointment as professor of biomedical research at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. He received an A.B. from Oberlin College in 1943, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, then received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1950. He has written more than 160 papers and holds 100 patents. His early work at Merck led to the discovery of stereoselective control of chemical transformations, an important concept in organic chemistry. At Penn, Hirschmann initiated collaborative research in the field of peptidomimetics, which has clarified relationships between chemical structure and biological function via collaborations with biologists in the pharmaceutical industry.
His honors include the National Medal of Science, the National Academy of Sciences’ Award for the Industrial Application of Science, the American Chemical Society’s Arthur C. Cope Medal and Edward E. Smissman Bristol-Myers Squibb Award, the Nichols Medal of its New York Section and the Willard Gibbs Medal of the Chicago Section, as well as the ACS Alfred Burger and E.B. Hershberg Awards. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and he is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Medicine. The Medical University of South Carolina established the Ralph F. Hirschmann Professorship of Biochemistry in his honor in 1997, and both Oberlin and Wisconsin have endowed lectureships in his honor.
The American Chemical Society was founded in 1876 and has more than 160,000 members in all fields of chemistry. The organization provides a broad range of opportunities for peer interaction and career development.