Max Tishler Prize
The Max Tishler Prize Lectureship was established in 1951 by an award from the Merck Sharp & Dohme Company in recognition of his major contributions to the company.
Max Tishler was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 30, 1906. He was educated at Tufts (B.S. 1928) and at Harvard (A.M. 1933, Ph.D. 1934) where he worked with Professor E.P. Kohler. Max Tishler served on the staff at Harvard as a Research Associate from 1934 to 1936 and as an Instructor in Chemistry for the year 1936-1937. He joined the Merck Company in 1937 as a Research Chemist, rose to Vice President for Scientific Activities in 1954, and eventually to President of Merck’s Research Laboratories (1956-1969). He was a member of the Board of Directors of Merck and a trustee of the Merck Company Foundation.
In 1970, Max Tishler retired from Merck and Company and became Professor of Chemistry at Wesleyan University where he also served as University Professor and Chairman of the Department of Chemistry. In 1975 he became University Professor of the Sciences, Emeritus. Max Tishler provided scientific leadership at the Merck Company during a period of extraordinary growth and success in research. He was instrumental in the development of new drugs for a variety of diseases including heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, infectious diseases and mental depression. Dr. Tishler was widely regarded as one of the leading industrial organic chemists of the 20th century in the United States. His contributions to science, technology and education over more than five decades were widely recognized.
His numerous honors included the Chemical Industry Medal of the Society of Chemical Industry, the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society, the Gold Medal of the American Institutes of Chemists and the U.S. National Medal of Science. He received several honorary degrees including an honorary Doctor of Science from Wesleyan University. Dr. Tishler was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In addition, he was an honorary member or fellow of numerous scholarly organizations including the Societé Chimique de France and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He held many invited lectureships in this country and abroad. More than a few universities have had the benefit of his wisdom and counsel over the years.
Max Tishler was an advisor and benefactor to Harvard’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department for many years.
Prize Lecturers
1952 Vladimir Prelog
1953 Marshall Gates
1954 Saul Winstein
1956 Melvin Calvin
1957 Derek Harold Richard Barton
1958 Herbert C. Brown
1959 Sir Alexander Robertus Todd
1961 William von E. Doering
1962 George Hammond
1963 Rolf Huisgen
1964 William Johnson
1965 John D. Roberts
1966 Albert Eschenmoser
1968 Costin D. Nenitzescu
1970 John W. Cornforth
1972 Duilio Arigoni
1975 Gilbert Stork
1976 Gerhard Closs
1978 Alan Battersby
1981 Paul Bartlett
1983 Raymond U. Lemieux
1985 Jack D. Dunitz
1988 Jack Baldwin
1989 George H. Büchi
1990 Dieter Seebach
1992 Alan R. Fersht
1994 Ryoji Noyori
1995 Samuel J. Danishefsky
1996 Joseph L. Goldstein
1997 Robert Huber
1998 Hisashi Yamamoto
1999 Peter B. Dervan
2000 K.C. Nicolaou
2001 Robert H. Grubbs
2002 Thomas R. Cech
2003 Robert G. Bergman
2004 Roderick MacKinnon
2005 JoAnne Stubbe
2006 Larry Overman
2007 Amir Hoveyda
2008 Stephen L. Buchwald
2009 Tohru Fukuyama
2010 John Sutherland
2011 Dale Boger
2012 Christopher T. Walsh
2013 Barry Trost
2014 John F. Hartwig
2015 Erick M. Carreira
2016 David MacMillan
2017 Scott J. Miller
2018 Carolyn Bertozzi
2019 Ben Cravatt
2020 Emmanuelle Charpentier
2022 F. Dean Toste
2023 Jin-Quan Yu
2024 David Milstein