Frank H. Westheimer, Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, at Harvard University and one of the key figures in 20th century chemistry, was born in Baltimore on Jan. 15, 1912. He attended Dartmouth College and graduated summa cum laude in 1932. Westheimer entered the graduate program at Harvard in 1932 to study under James B. Conant.
After receiving his doctorate at Harvard in 1935, Westheimer went to Columbia University as a National Research Fellow in the field of physical-organic chemistry. He accepted a faculty position at the University of Chicago in 1936, and in 1937 married Jeanne Friedmann. During World War II, he was a supervisor at the National Explosives Research Laboratory. After the war, he resumed his post at the University of Chicago, where he remained until moving to Harvard in 1953. At Harvard, he was the Morris Loeb Professor and an admired teacher of both undergraduate and graduate students. He served as a science adviser to President Lyndon Johnson, and in 1966 he chaired the Committee of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences that set a course of action for federal support of the chemical sciences.
Westheimer was the recipient of numerous honors and honorary degrees, including the U.S. National Medal of Science, the U.S. National Academy Award in Chemical Sciences, the Robert A. Welch Foundation Award in Chemistry, and many awards of the American Chemical Society. He served as a science adviser to President Lyndon Johnson, and in 1966 he chaired an enormously influential Committee of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences that set a course of action for federal support of the chemical sciences. In 2002 Harvard University established the Frank H. Westheimer Medal for scientific excellence in his honor.
Prize Lecturers
2002 - 2003 Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.
2003 - 2004 Albert Eschenmoser
2004 - 2005 Thomas A. Steitz
2005 – 2006 David Eisenberg
2006 - 2007 Lubert Stryer
2007 – 2008 Elizabeth Blackburn
2008 – 2009 Alanna Schepartz
2009 – 2010 Peter B. Dervan
2010 – 2011 Roger D. Kornberg
2011 – 2012 Paul Schimmel
2012 – 2013 Ronald Breslow
2013 - 2014 Kevan Shokat
2014 - 2015 Jennifer Doudna
2016 – 2017 Peter Schultz
2017 - 2018 Harry Gray
2018 - 2019 Jack Szostak
2019 - 2020 Jacqueline K. Barton