The Pittsburgh Award was established in 1932 by the Pittsburgh Section of ACS to recognize outstanding leadership in chemical affairs in the local and larger professional community. This Award symbolizes the honor and appreciation accorded to those who have rendered distinguished service to the field of chemistry. The Award, consisting of a plaque, is presented annually at a Section dinner open to the public. Members of the Pittsburgh Section, or in exceptional cases, nonmembers, who have done work worthy of recognition toward increasing chemical knowledge, promoting the chemical industry, benefiting humanity, or advancing the Pittsburgh Section, are eligible for consideration.
Dr. Alexander Deiters was born in Germany and studied Chemistry at the University of Münster from 1993-1998. He received his diploma degree in 1998 and his doctoral degree in 2000 for work in Professor Hoppe’s group on new cyclization reactions with enantiomerically enriched allyllithium species. In 2001 he joined Professor Martin’s lab at the University of Texas at Austin where he worked as a postdoctoral fellow on the total synthesis of indole alkaloids. In 2002 he began another postdoctorate in Professor Schultz’s lab at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla where he developed genetic code expansion methodologies for unnatural amino acids.
In 2004, Alex joined the Department of Chemistry at North Carolina State University as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009 and to Full Professor in 2012. He moved his lab to the University of Pittsburgh in September 2013, where he currently is a Professor of Chemistry. His group’s research interests are in the areas of Synthetic Biology and Chemical Biology and range from the discovery of small molecule modifiers of biological pathways, medicinal chemistry, peptides and aptamers to cell, protein, and nucleic acid engineering. He has published >190 peer-reviewed papers, written six book chapters and 14 review articles, has presented over one hundred eighty research seminars, and has consulted for several pharmaceutical companies. He has several granted patents and technologies that he co-developed have been licensed by the biotech industry.
Alex also has an exceptional track record of service to the Department and to the local community. He and members of his group have organized and conducted a wide range of outreach activities over the years. They have designed tailored informational materials and hands-on experiments. They often perform demonstrations that they developed to relate chemistry and biology to everyday activities in order to engage the general public and to inspire interest in STEM disciplines. Additionally, Alex cofounded Pitt’s iGEM undergrad team together with Drs. Jason Lohmueller and Sanjeev Shroff. The iGEM Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology, education and competition, and the development of an open, collaborative, and cooperative community. Pitt’s award-winning iGEM teams have raised awareness of synthetic biology by experimental presentations, such as a newly developed cloning game and a children’s book.
Biography provided in parts by Dr. Dennis Curran and http://www.deiterslab.org/