Robert A. Welch Foundation

The Welch Foundation, based in Houston, Texas, is one of the United States' oldest and largest private funding sources for chemistry researchers. It is a non-profit organization named for Robert Alonzo Welch, an industrialist who provided the funds to set up the foundation, along with research grants, endowments, and funding for chemical research. Since its founding in 1954, the organization has contributed to the advancement of chemistry through research grants, departmental grant programs, endowed chairs, and other special projects at educational institutions in Texas. The foundation hosts an annual chemical research conference in Houston that attracts chemists from around the globe and also sponsors The Welch Award in Chemistry as well as the Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research.

Grants, scholarships, endowments, and awards

  • The Welch Award in Chemistry, currently a $500,000 award, which recognizes the value of chemical research contributions for the benefit of humankind.[1]
  • The Norman Hackerman award in chemical research, currently a $100,000 award, which recognizes the work of young researchers in Texas.[2]
  • Research Grants support fundamental chemical research at universities, colleges, or other educational institutions within the state of Texas.
  • Departmental Grants support chemical research by members of the chemistry department faculty at educational institutions in Texas.
  • Endowed Chairs provide a faculty position for an eminent scientist. To be considered for an endowed chair, a Texas education institution must have a Ph.D. program in chemistry.
  • Catalyst for Discovery Program Grants is intended to accelerate progress in fundamental chemical research by supporting research teams in Texas aimed at significant problems at the leading edge of chemistry. Annually, two grants of up to five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) each will be awarded to highly meritorious proposals.
  • The Postdoctoral Fellows Grant Program provides three-year fellowships to recent PhD graduates from around the world to support the development of their chemical research careers in Texas. The aim is to fund fellows who intend to tackle important problems in chemistry in interesting and novel ways in laboratories that provide world-class training.
  • The Welch eXperimental (WelchX) Collaboration Retreats aims to bring together Texas researchers to topically focused chemistry meetings and stimulate them to ideate on challenging issues of our time. Early-to mid-career tenured faculty will be invited to this fully in-person summer meeting to stimulate collaborations that foster lasting connections among the participants, thus increasing the density of research ties across Texas and spurring the growth of basic research in the chemical sciences.

Welch Award in Chemistry

Year Recipient
1972 Karl August Folkers, The University of Texas at Austin
1974 Albert Eschenmoser, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
1976 Neil Bartlett, University of California, Berkeley
1978 Edgar Bright Wilson, Harvard University
1980 Sune Bergström, Karolinska Institute
1981 Paul Doughty Bartlett, Texas Christian University
1982 Frank Westheimer, Harvard University
1983 Henry Taube, Stanford University
1984 Kenneth Pitzer, University of California, Berkeley
1985 Duilio Arigoni, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
1986 George C. Pimentel, University of California, Berkeley
1987 Harry George Drickamer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1988 Richard Barry Bernstein, University of California, Los Angeles
1989 Norman R. Davidson, California Institute of Technology
1990 John D. Roberts, California Institute of Technology
1990 William von Eggers Doering, Harvard University
1991 Earl R. Stadtman, National Institutes of Health
1991 Edwin G. Krebs, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington
1992 Richard Smalley, Rice University
1993 Gilbert Stork, Columbia University
1994 Jack Halpern, The University of Chicago
1994 F. Albert Cotton, Texas A&M University
1995 Jeremy R. Knowles, Harvard University
1995 Robert H. Abeles, Brandeis University
1996 Koji Nakanishi, Columbia University
1997 Ahmed Zewail, California Institute of Technology
1998 Pierre Chambon, College de France
1999 Richard Zare, Stanford University
2000 A. Ian Scott, Texas A&M University
2000 Sir Alan R. Battersby, Cambridge University
2001 Roger D. Kornberg, Stanford University
2002 Harden M. McConnell, Stanford University
2003 Ronald Breslow, Columbia University
2004 Allen J. Bard, The University of Texas at Austin
2005 George M. Whitesides, Harvard University
2006 Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., University of California, Berkeley
2007 William H. Miller, University of California, Berkeley
2007 Noel S. Hush, University of Sydney
2008 Alexander Rich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2009 Harry B. Gray, California Institute of Technology
2010 JoAnne Stubbe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;

Christopher T. Walsh, Harvard Medical School

2011 John S. Waugh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2012 David A. Evans, Harvard University
2013 Louis E. Brus, Columbia University
2014 Robert G. Bergman, University of California, Berkeley
2015 Stephen C. Harrison, Harvard Medical School
2016 Richard H. Holm, Harvard University;

Stephen J. Lippard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2017 John B. Goodenough, University of Texas at Austin
2018 Adriaan Bax, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
2019 Armand Paul Alivisatos, University of California Berkeley;

Charles M. Lieber, Harvard University

2020 Steven L. McKnight, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2021 Chi-Huey Wong, The Scripps Research Institute
2022 Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Stanford University
2023 Jacqueline Barton, California Institute of Technology
2024 Eric N. Jacobsen, Harvard University
2025 Stuart L. Schreiber, Harvard University;

Peter G. Schultz, Scripps Research

Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research Recipients

Source: [1]

Year Recipient
2002 Andrew R. Barron, Rice University
2003 Xiaodong Wang, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2004 Jianpeng Ma, Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University
2005 Zhijian "James" Chen, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2006 Paul S. Cremer, Texas A&M University
2007 Patrick G. Harran, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2008 Francis T.F. Tsai, Baylor College of Medicine
2009 Cecilia Clementi, Rice University
2010 Kim Orth, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2011 Jason H. Hafner, Rice University
2012 Oleg V. Ozerov, Texas A&M University
2013 Olafs Daugulis, University of Houston
2014 Benjamin P. Tu, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2015 Stephan Link, Rice University
2016 Christopher J. Ellison, The University of Texas at Austin
2017 Neal M. Alto, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2017 Delia J. Milliron, The University of Texas at Austin
2018 Jeffrey D. Rimer, University of Houston
2019 Uttam K. Tambar, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2020 Vincent S. Tagliabracci, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2021 Ilya J. Finkelstein, The University of Texas at Austin
2022 Guihua Yu, The University of Texas at Austin
2022 Ryan Hibbs, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2023 Jason S. McLellan, The University of Texas at Austin
2024 Livia Schiavinato Eberlin, Baylor College of Medicine
2025 Haotian Wang, Rice University
2026 Sheel Dodani, The University of Texas at Dallas

References