The 1999 recipient of the Merrifield Award is Dr. Daniel H. Rich, the Ralph F. Hirschmann Professor of Medicinal and Organic Chemistry of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Pharmacy and Department of Chemistry. The Merrifield Award, known previously as the Alan E. Pierce Award, is the highest honor of the American Peptide Society and is presented at each biennial American Peptide Symposium to an individual whose research, teaching, and service has had a substantial impact on the intellectual and practical development of peptide science. The award recognizes scientists at a point in their careers where a substantial body of creative work is available and sufficient time has passed to place their work in perspective. A generous gift in 1997 by Dr. Rao Makineni, recently retired from BACHEM California, established this award on a secure financial basis.
Daniel H. Rich was born December 12, 1942 in Fairmont, Minnesota. He received the B.S. degree with a Chemistry major from the University of Minnesota in 1964 -- having carried out undergraduate research with Professor Wayland E. Noland, and his Ph. D. in organic chemistry from Cornell University (Ithaca) in 1968 with Professor A. T. Blomquist. Dr. Rich carried out postdoctoral research with Nobel Laureate Vincent du Vigneaud at Cornell and Professor W. S. Johnson at Stanford, before joining the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1970. Dr. Rich was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1981. His research focuses on the synthesis and conformational analysis of cyclic peptides, and the design and synthesis of inhibitors of therapeutically important enzymes, especially aspartic proteases including pepsin, renin, cathepsin D, and HIV-I protease. In addition, much of Professor Richís work has led to new insights about immunosuppressants such as cyclosporin.
The research of Daniel Rich and co-workers has been described in over 220 refereed publications and recognized by a long list of prestigious awards: the 1990 Vincent du Vigneaud Award in Peptide Chemistry, the 1992 ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry Award, the 1992 Research Achievement Award of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the 1992 George Herbert Hitchings Award for Innovative Methods in the Design and Discovery of Drugs, the 1993 American Chemical Society Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry, a WARF University Professorship at UW-Madison in 1994, the E. Volwiler Research Achievement Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in 1995, and an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society in 1999. In addition, Rich has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1986 and was a Senior U.S. Scientist Alexander von Humboldt Scholar in Germany in 1993.
Professor Rich has given outstanding service to the peptide community. He chaired the Seventh American Peptide Symposium which was held in Madison in 1981, was a member of the Bioorganic and Natural Products study section for the National Institutes of Health from 1981-1985 (Chairman for the final two years of his term), served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry from 1988-1992, and chaired the Division of Medicinal Chemistry for the American Chemical Society in 1992. Rich is currently Associate Editor of the new ACS journal, Organic Letters, and is in the middle of an elected 6-year term on the American Peptide Society Council. The selection of Professor Daniel H. Rich adds to the stature conferred by the distinguished previous recipients of the award.
