The Hillebrand Prize

The Hillebrand Prize has been given annually since 1925 (except in 1929 and 1976) to a member or members of the Chemical Society of Washington for original contributions to the science of chemistry.

Dr. Levin received his B.S. from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. from Brown University, as well as having engaged in postdoctoral experience at the University of Washington and having served a tour in the military. Having spent his professional career at the National Institutes of Health, he is currently Deputy Director of the Division of Intramural Research in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, in addition to being Chief, of the Section on Molecular Biophysics, at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. His research interests lie primarily in the applications of vibrational infrared and Raman spectroscopic techniques toward the elucidation of the conformational, dynamical, thermodynamic, and functional properties of both intact and model membrane assemblies and related systems. Emphasis is placed on investigating the specific lipid-lipid and lipid-protein interactions governing biomembrane reorganizations. In particular, his efforts are directed toward defining and characterizing lipid microdomain formation as it pertains both to the existence of lateral heterogeneities and transverse asymmetries within biological membranes and to the ability and extent of these fluctuating microclusters, or domain motifs, to modulate integral membrane protein behavior. He has been at the forefront of developing spectroscopic infrared, Raman and visible reflectance imaging instrumentation. Specifically, his laboratory has provided pioneering technologies and studies in spectroscopic Fourier-transform infrared and Raman microimaging. Current efforts are in actively translating laboratory imaging research into clinical venues ranging from monitoring disease progression by means of spectroscopic histopathologic classifications to in vivo hyperspectral visible reflectance imaging for assessing tissue perfusion, vascular disease and endothelial dysfunction.

Dr. Levin has been internationally recognized for his spectroscopic accomplishments and has been honored with many awards, including the Bomem-Michelson Award by the Coblentz Society, the Meggers Award (three separate award occasions) presented by the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, the distinguished Harold A. Iddles Lecture Series sponsored by the University of New Hampshire, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society's Biophysical Division and, separately, a Fellow in the their Division of Chemical Physics. He has also received the Lippincott Award in Vibrational Spectroscopy presented by the Optical Society of America. Dr. Levin is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy and has received Honorary Membership in the Society, their highest award, for his pioneering technologies and studies in spectroscopic Fourier transform infrared and Raman microimaging. Dr. Levin has also received the New York Section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy Gold Medal Award for his spectroscopic research contributions. He has served on numerous editorial and foundation advisory boards and committees in various leadership capacities, has lectured extensively, and has authored and coauthored approximately two hundred and thirty publications, in addition to several patents, over the course of his career. Dr. Levin is a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Biophysical Society, the Coblentz Society, and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

Biomedical Applications of Infrared and Visible Reflectance
Spectroscopic Imaging: From Bench to Bedside

The blurring between the margins of disease detection and treatment has been termed the "science of prevention" by health practitioners. Major developments in this context have been within the exploding area of medical diagnostic imaging. A relatively recent contributor to the existing panoply of biomedical imaging techniques has been the applications of both vibrational spectroscopic and visible reflectance imaging approaches at the tissue level. These specific spectroscopic imaging techniques are capable of providing non-invasive characterizations of heterogeneous systems ranging from macromolecular assemblies to biological ensembles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic imaging, in particular, couples mid-infrared step-scan and continuous-scan interferometry both to infrared microscopes and appropriate infrared focal plane array and linear array detectors; this instrumentation has allowed enormous advances to be achieved in monitoring disease progression by means of histopathologic classifications. In combining the imaging of tissue microarrays with statistical pattern recognition algorithms, automated histologic segmentation based upon carefully specified spectral metrics is accomplished. These procedures preclude the use of tissue staining measures, are objective and statistically significant, and remain consonant with conventional tissue processing procedures. We will discuss here our recent developments in designing a practical imaging protocol for spectroscopically determining histopathologic features of, for example, prostate tissue. This process combines high throughput spectroscopic imaging, large scale patient sampling using tissue microarrays and rapid data analyses. As a further example of "translational research" (or bench to bedside research) in which a laboratory developed methodology is rapidly applied to clinical usage, we shall describe a non-invasive, visible reflectance hyperspectral technique for in vivo monitoring of vascular disease and endothelial dysfunction. This imaging approach has the potential for monitoring broad aspects of tissue perfusion in which vascular functional changes in human subjects are induced pharmacologically. Specifically, skin tissue hemoglobin oxygen saturation is imaged quantitatively in patients with sickle cell disease to determine whether changes in blood flow during nitric oxide stimulation or gas administration (therapies proposed for this disease) improve impaired tissue perfusion. In extending these concepts, we demonstrate an approach for visually enhancing, in real time, visible light images detected by a 3-CCD detector during laparoscopic procedures in which changes in tissue oxygenation become critical in surgical usage for the assessment of internal organ viability.

Molecular Structure of Amyloid Fibrils (Why I Like Solid State NMR)

Robert Tycko
Laboratory of Chemical Physics
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

Abstract

Working at the Interface between Chemistry and Allied Sciences
in Designing Metallic Polymers and Safer Explosives*

Carter T. White, Ph.D.

2004 Hillenbrand Prize Recipient
Dr. Catherine Fenselau

Abstract

Rapid Analysis of Microorganisms by Mass Spectrometry

Dr. Catherine Fenselau
University of Marland

2003 Hillebrand Prize Recipient
Dr. Kenneth A. Jacobson

The Supreme Court of Chemistry

by Lisa Greenhouse, NIST Historian

The annual Hillebrand Prize of the Chemical Society of Washington (CSW), awarded for original contributions to the science of chemistry by member(s) of CSW, is named for William F. Hillebrand (1853-1925), one of Washington's most distinguished chemists. Hillebrand achieved such stature during his career in Washington, first with the Geological Survey and then with the Bureau of Standards, that his colleagues referred to him as the "Supreme Court of Chemistry."

Hillebrand was indeed a judge and a critic but a reluctant one. As Chairman for many years of the Supervisory Committee on Standard Methods of Analysis of the American Chemical Society (ACS), he played a paramount role in judging which analytical methods would be published as ACS standards. As associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society and assistant editor of Chemical Abstracts and the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, the latter of which he founded, Hillebrand placed himself in the delicate position of having to critique and often reject the work of his professional peers. He performed these duties with great integrity but also with some unhappiness, never feeling good about disappointing his colleagues.

In several addresses to scientific societies, Hillebrand was sharply critical of what was then the growing tendency of his profession to make incomplete chemical analyses of samples, leaving out elements present in small amounts and leaving out determinations of rare elements that were thought not to be useful. This was so even when important uses for rare elements continued to be discovered. Hillebrand, an analytical geochemist by training, deplored this trend toward incompleteness and was outspoken in his criticism.

Hillebrand's conviction that analytical chemistry should be exacting was indicative of his perfectionism. More than a judge of others, he was a judge of himself. He always regretted that he had what he considered an inadequate grasp of mathematics and English composition, and he didn't fail to mention these deficiencies in autobiographical notes. He modestly referred to Thomas H. Norton, his classmate at the University of Heidelberg, where Hillebrand received his PhD, summa cum laude, in 1875, as having "superior mental power" to his own. He struggled with embarrassment over his failure to find terrestrial helium in a sample of uraninite, which he had analyzed in 1887, an error pointed up by Sir William Ramsay's later discovery of helium in a variety of uraninite.

After Heidelberg, Hillebrand studied at the Mining Academy at Freiberg, Germany. Thus prepared, Hillebrand returned to America to pursue a career as a geochemist. In 1880, after running a private assaying firm in Leadville, Colorado, a silver mining boomtown, he took a job as an analytical chemist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Denver laboratory. He was soon transferred to Washington where he made major contributions to the understanding of silicate rocks.

In 1908, Hillebrand moved to the Bureau of Standards (founded in 1901 as a national standards laboratory) as Chief Chemist. Hillebrand, with scant resources and a few staff members, set out on a groundbreaking path of preparing and providing well-characterized samples necessary for American industry to check its analytical methods, techniques, and instruments. The Standard Reference Materials Program that Hillebrand established continues to be one of the most significant missions of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Dr. William F. Hillebrand