Awardees
Winners of the Alfred L. Loomis Award for research excellence in the field of Sonochemistry
2018 – Ken Suslick
Kenneth S. Suslick is the Marvin T. Schmidt Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Suslick received his B.S. from Caltech in 1974 and his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1978, and came to the UIUC immediately thereafter. He has received (from the RSC) the Centenary Prize, the Theophilus Redwood Award, and the Sir George Stokes Medal; the Materials Research Society Medal; and from the ACS both the Nobel Laureate Signature Award and the Hildebrand Award in the Chemistry of Liquids. He is also the recipient of the Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Medal of the Acoustical Society of America and the Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists. In 2018-2019, Suslick was the George Eastman Professor at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College. Professor Suslick has more than 510 scientific papers, including four books and 71 patents and patent applications; his h-index is 135 with more than 73,000 citations. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the Materials Research Society, the Acoustical Society of America, the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Inventors, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was a founding co-editor of Ultrasonics Sonochemistry. In addition to academic research, Suslick has had significant entrepreneurial experience. He was the lead consultant for Molecular Biosystems Inc. and part of the team that commercialized the first echo contrast agent for medical sonography, Albunex™, which became Optison™. In addition, he was the founding consultant for VivoRx Pharmaceuticals and co-inventor of one of the first FDA-approved nanopharmacueticals, Abraxane™ (serum albumin microspheres with a paclitaxel core), which is a dominant current delivery system for taxol chemotherapy and was originally made sonochemically.
Ken Suslick during his acceptance lecture
Ken Suslick during his acceptance lecture
2022 – Tim Mason
Tim Mason is Emeritus Professor at Coventry University where he spent the majority of his academic life from 1975 until his retirement in 2016. It was here that, with his friend and colleague Phil Lorimer their first paper on ultrasound in chemistry was published (1980), they also wrote the first ever text using Sonochemistry as its title (1989) and together established the Coventry University Sonochemistry Centre. Tim became the first president of ESS (1991) and was instrumental in the founding of the journal Ultrasonics Sonochemistry (1994). He has authored or edited 17 books related to sonochemistry and continues his long-time interests in a wide range of topics including environmental protection, chemical synthesis, food and materials processing, fundamental aspects of sonochemistry, scale-up, therapeutic ultrasound and ultrasonically assisted extraction (UAE). These are maintained through research collaborations and contributions to conferences. His 18th textbook, Practical Sonochemistry, 3rd edition, co-authored by Mircea Vinatoru will be published in 2025.
Tim Mason eager to start his acceptance lecture at ESS17 in Jena, Germany
2024 – Muthupandian Ashokkumar
Professor Muthupandian Ashokkumar (Ashok) is the Assistant Deputy Vice Chancellor International at the university of Melbourne, alongside his role as a Professor of Physical Chemistry and Head of School of Chemistry. He has the responsibility for international strategy and relationships with India. He was the Acting Director & CEO of the Australia India Institute and the Deputy Head of School of Chemistry, Faculty of Science. Prior to his current position, Ashok was the Associate Dean International (ADI) in the Faculty of Science from 2013 to 2017. During his ADI tenure, he established Melbourne India Postgraduate Program, Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy and BSc Blended programs involving partner institutions across India. He is currently leading the implementation of BSc Dual Degree program in India. He has served on several University of Melbourne management committees and scientific advisory boards of external scientific organisations. Ashok has made major contributions to the Materials, Food and Dairy industries through his research in the field of Ultrasonics & Sonochemistry. He has received about $ 15 million research grants to support his research work that includes several industry projects. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Ultrasonics Sonochemistry (Elseiver, Journal Impact Factor 8.4), has published ~520 refereed papers (H-Index: 86) and was the President of the Asia Oceania Sonochemical Society. He has delivered over 250 invited/keynote/plenary lectures at international conferences and academic institutions.Prof.
Muthupandian Ashokkumar receiving the Award from ESS President Jean-Yves Hihn
Ashok during his acceptance lecture at ESS18