Plastics Expert Wins $500K Lemelson-MIT Award

(AP Photo/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dan Sears) :: This April 2008 photo released by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, shows Joseph M. DeSimone, a chemist from of the university, holding a roll of a special type of plastic he developed that scientists hope will enable mass production of tiny nanoparticles to help diagnose and treat diseases. DeSimone is to be named Wednesday, June 25, 2008, as the winner of the annual $500,000 Lemelson-MIT award for inventions in 'green' manufacturing, nanomedicine and medical devices.

By Associated Press
MARK JEWELL
Updated: 6/25/2008

BOSTON

Joseph DeSimone's expertise in chemistry has yielded advances in environmentally sensitive plastics manufacturing, medical devices for blocked coronary arteries and minuscule engineered particles that may someday help diagnose and treat disease.

For those achievements, the 44-year-old professor has won this year's $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, to be announced Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

''The breadth of his inventions, and his ability to leverage his expertise across all these disciplines is really amazing,'' said Joshua Schuler, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT program.

DeSimone grew up in suburban Philadelphia, where his interest in chemistry blossomed in part because of a chemistry set his younger sister received as a gift.

''Maybe it was just jealousy in wanting to have something she had that made me move in that direction,'' DeSimone, who has appointments as a professor both at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at North Carolina State University, said in a phone interview.

His interest in ''green'' chemistry and the search for environmentally friendly ways to make plastics led him to develop a process to reduce pollutants left over from manufacturing, substituting carbon dioxide for an acid that's normally used.

A $40 million DuPont Co. plant in Fayetteville, N.C., that went online in 2002 uses the technique.

DeSimone also teamed with Duke University cardiologist Richard Stack to craft a plastic alternative to the metal stents implanted in millions of people worldwide to hold arteries open. Research shows newer metal stents can slightly increase the risk of blood clots.

DeSimone also has waded into nanotechnology, creating minuscule engineered particles that scientists hope can help diagnose and treat conditions such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis and cancer.

DeSimone said he plans to use the prize money to support additional scientific ventures. Prolific inventor Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife, Dorothy, founded the nonprofit Lemelson-MIT Program in 1994.

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On the Net:

Lemelson-MIT Program: http://web.mit.edu/invent