The ACS International Award for Research in Agrochemicals is given to a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of agrochemicals at the international level. Their vision and sustained contributions will have opened new horizons for other investigators in their field and beyond.
Nominations are now being sought for the 2026 Award winner to be presented at the 2027 ACS Fall Meeting in San Diego, California. This award includes an honorarium of $5000 USD. Deadline for nominations is December 31, 2024.
The nomination letter will include the following statement: “I hereby nominate [insert first, middle, last name] as a candidate for the ACS International Award for Research in Agrochemicals.” It will also include the nominee’s business address, and a description (200 – 1000 words) of the reasons why the nominee should receive this award, stressing the individual’s major accomplishments. Include a curriculum vitae of the candidate that includes: places and nature of employment, professional affiliations, honors and awards received, and a list of publications and patents. Nominations often include one or two letters of support, although this is optional.
The nominating official(s) should be prepared to assist in organizing a symposium at the ACS Fall 2027 Meeting in honor of the awardee.
Electronic nominations (as a single pdf file) containing all the listed items should be emailed to AGRO Awards Committee Chair, Qing Li at qingl@hawaii.edu
Sponsored by
2025 Award Recipient
Thomas P. Selby is the winner of the 2025 ACS International Award for Research in Agrochemicals. Thomas is recognized for his co-invention of the powdery mildew fungicide proquinazid, the broad-spectrum diamide insecticide chlorantraniliprole, the systemic diamide insecticide cyantraniliprole, and the new mode-of-action rice herbicide tetflupyrolimet that have had a profound impact on Agriculture. A symposium will be organized in honor of Thomas at the ACS 2025 Fall Meeting in Washington, DC.
2024 Award Recipient
Recognized for groundbreaking research on and invention of strobilurin fungicides.
John M. Clough is an organic chemist. He studied at the University of Nottingham in the UK. Having been awarded a First Class Honours Degree in Chemistry in 1976, he conducted research on the characterization and synthesis of (poly-Z)carotenoids with Professor Gerald Pattenden, FRS, leading to a PhD. In 1979, John joined Syngenta (then ICI Plant Protection Division) at its Jealott’s Hill International Research Centre in Berkshire, and it was here that he spent his whole career, contributing to many fungicide and herbicide research projects, until his retirement in 2018. He was a Syngenta Fellow, Group Leader and a member of the Chemistry Leadership Team, working on the discovery of new chemicals for crop protection. From 2004, he led Syngenta’s Natural Products Team and is particularly interested the use of bioactive natural products in lead generation.
In 1983, John initiated the strobilurin fungicide project, which he then led for more than 10 years. During this time, the commercial products azoxystrobin and picoxystrobin were discovered. Azoxystrobin was launched in 1996, and annual sales are still in excess of $1 billion. In 1999, Syngenta (then Zeneca) received the Queen’s Award for Technology for the discovery of azoxystrobin. In 2011, John was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Creativity in Industry Prize for his contribution to the discovery of the strobilurin fungicides. John has had strong links with chemists at several universities in the UK and China. He has been the industrial supervisor of numerous PhD projects, studying new synthetic methods and the synthesis of natural products and enzyme inhibitors. He was appointed Visiting Professor in the School of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham in 2003, and Honorary Professor and a member of the Industrial Advisory Board in the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham in 2016, positions he held until his retirement.
From 2004, John was a member of Syngenta’s Crop Protection Research China Team, with responsibility for substantial partnerships at the Central China Normal University (CCNU), Wuhan; the Hubei Biopesticide Engineering Research Centre (HBERC), Wuhan; and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC). John worked closely with the Royal Society of Chemistry for 25 years. He was Chairman of the RSC Heterocyclic and Synthesis Group for two years (2008-09) and Vice President of the Organic Division Council for three years (appointed 2012). He was Syngenta’s scientific representative on the RSC Pan Africa Chemistry Network (PACN) from its formation in 2008.
John has authored or co-authored more than 130 publications, including about 70 patents, 50 papers and 15 reviews. Of these, the most significant are the pioneering strobilurin patent, filed in 1984 and the first of well over 1000 patents from the crop protection industry claiming strobilurin analogues as fungicides, and the patents embracing azoxystrobin and picoxystrobin. He has given lectures at conferences in Europe, the USA, China, Brazil, and Africa. Since retiring from Syngenta, John consults for companies working in crop protection research.
Past Awardees
2023
Thomas Stevenson, FMC Agricultural Solutions, USA
2022
Jeff Scott, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
2021
David B. Satelle, University College London, London, UK
2020
Qing X. Li, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa, Hawai‘i
2019
Vincent L. Salgado, BASF, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
2018
Stephen Powles, University of Western Australia, Australia
2017
Jeffrey Bloomquist, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
2016
Yoshihisa Ozoe, Shimane University, Japan
2015
Keith D. Wing, formerly of Rohm and Haas and DuPont Crop Protection, Wilmington, DE
2014
Ralf Nauen, Bayer CropScience, Monheim, Germany
2013
René Feyereisen, National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA), France
2012
Thomas C. Sparks, Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, IN
2011
George P. Lahm, DuPont Crop Science, Newark, Delaware
2010
Shinzo Kagabu, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan
2009
R. Donald Wauchope, USDA-ARS (retired), Tifton, Georgia
2008
David M. Soderlund, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
2007
Gerald T. Brooks, University of Sussex (retired), Brighton, UK
2007
Fredrick J. Perlak, Monsanto, St. Louis, Missouri
2006
Joel Coats, Iowa State University, Ames
2006
Isamu Yamaguchi, Agricultural Chemicals Inspection Station, Tokyo, Japan
2005
Robert Krieger, University of California-Riverside
2005
Janice E. Chambers, Mississippi State University, Starkville
2004
Stephen Duke, USDA-ARS, Oxford, Mississippi
2004
John Marshall Clark, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
2003
Hideo Ohkawa, Kobe University, Japan
2003
Bob Hollingworth, Michigan State University, East Lansing
2002
Marinus Los, American Cyanamid, Princeton, New Jersey
2002
Keith Solomon, University of Guelph, Canada
2001
Ralph Mumma, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
2001
Donald Crosby, University of California-Davis
2000
Herbert B. Scher, Zeneca, Richmond, California
2000
George P. Georghiou, University of California-Riverside
1999
James Seiber, University of Nevada-Reno
1999
Don Baker, Zeneca, Richmond, California
1998
Leslie Crombie, University of Nottingham, England
1998
George Levitt, DuPont, Wilmington, Delaware
1997
Izuru Yamamoto, University of Tokyo, Japan
1997
Fritz Führ, Institute of Chemistry and Dynamic, Jülich, Germany
1996
Klaus Naumann, Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany
1996
Günther Voss, Ciba, Basel, Switzerland
1995
Mohyee Eldefrawi, University of Maryland-Baltimore
1995
Koji Nakanishi, Columbia University, New York, New York
1994
Toshio Fujita, Kyoto University, Japan
1993
Morifusa Eto, Kyushu University, Fukoka, Japan
1992
Bruce Hammock, University of California-Davis
1991
Stuart Frear, USDA-ARS, Fargo, North Dakota
1990
David Schooley, University of Nevada-Reno
1989
Toshio Narahashi, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
1988
Ernest Hodgson, North Carolina State University
1987
Fumio Matsumura, Michigan State University, East Lansing
1986
James Tumlinson, USDA-ARS, Gainesville, Florida
1985
Junshi Miyamoto, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Japan
1984
Jacques Jean Martel, Roussel Uclaf, Paris, France
1983
Karl Heinz Buechel, Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany
1982
Jack R. Plimmer, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland
1981
Philip C. Kearney, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland
1980
Minoru Nakajima, Kyoto University, Japan
1979
Milton S. Schechter, USDA-ARS (retired), Beltsville, Maryland
1978
Julius J. Menn, Stauffer Chemical Co., Mountain View, California
1977
Francis A. Gunther, University of California-Riverside
1976
Morton Beroza, USDA-ARS (retired), Beltsville, Maryland
1975
Michael Elliot, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, England
1974
T. Roy Fukuto, University of California-Riverside
1973
Hubert Martin, British Crop Protection Council, London, England
1972
Ralph L. Wain, Wye College, University of London,England
1971
Robert L. Metcalf, University of Illinois, Champagne-Urban
1970
Richard D. O’Brien, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
1969
John E. Casida, University of California-Berkley