The Chemists' Club awards the 2015 Winthrop-Sears Medal for entrepreneurial achievement to Dr. Mario Nappa of Chemours. The medal, which has been awarded annually since 1970, will be presented to Dr. Nappa at The Chemists' Club's 118th annual Egg Nog dinner on December 10 at the New York Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Nappa is an inventor on 140 patents and the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He received his B.A. from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Rutgers University. Dr. Nappa was also a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago. He is currently a Chemours Fellow responsible for developing the company's fluorine based R&D product portfolio.
Dr. Nappa’s innovations have resulted in many improvements in refrigerants science, including major advances in sustainability, according to Chemours. Dr. Nappa developed approaches for process optimization, including advanced density functional theory molecular orbital calculations to understand the fundamental thermodynamics and reaction kinetics. He was key to the successful development of many of the major fluorochemical processes commercialized in the last 20 years, according to the company. Early in his career, Dr. Nappa played a role in the development of hydrofluorocarbons introduced after the phaseout of CFC’s in the mid-1990s.
For more information, visit: www.chemours.com