Industrial Innovations Award

Awards and Fellowships

The Division of Cellulose and Renewable Materials (CELL) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Industrial Innovations Award recognizes outstanding industrial innovation within the field of renewable materials. This award is aimed at individual scientists or multidisciplinary research teams that advance sustainability and/or performance of products, manufacturing processes or business enhancements of renewable materials through innovation or breakthrough technologies.

This award is administered by the ACS CELL Division Awards Chair. Nominations are solicited biennially and awarded when qualified nominations are received.

Eligibility

This award is open to individuals or team personnel of companies or organizations participating in the manufacturing of products or providing services or technologies brought to commercialization within the last 10 years, involving renewable materials, green chemistry concepts, environmentally responsible manufacturing processes, or significant sustainability improvements. Individual nominees or the principal nominee of team nominations must have at least three (3) years of industrial experience and be members of the CELL division.

Any individuals or teams from companies or organizations who meet the eligibility criteria can be nominated for the award.

Self-nominations are accepted.
Multi-disciplinary teams can include marketing personnel and/or contributing members from academia or government, but the principal nominee must meet the eligibility criteria.

Note to Nominators and Nominees: Approval for the submission of a nomination must be sought from the nominee’s company ahead of submitting the nomination package and the nominee’s company must be made aware that the winning nomination is expected to deliver an oral presentation at an ACS Spring/Fall/Digital Meeting.

Nomination Package

Each nomination requires the submission of a nomination package that includes:

A completed nomination form.
A nomination letter of no more than 800 words, written on organizational letterhead where appropriate.
Two (2) supporting letters of no more than 800 words, written on organizational letterhead where appropriate articulating how the candidate fulfills the award criteria.

This nomination package will be held by the CELL Awards Chair for three (3) years provided the information contained within the package remains valid for the award.

Submission

A compiled nomination package should be submitted electronically to the Awards Chair, or delegate noted on the nomination form, and sent as a single PDF file before the nomination deadline of February 20^th of each odd year.

Award Adjudication

The award is judged by a panel of five CELL members appointed by the Awards Chair, or their delegate. Where possible, the panel will consist of at least one industrial scientist, one government scientist, one academic scientist and one past awardee. Any judge with a conflict of interest with any nomination will be replaced according to the Division’s Conflict of Interest and Ethical Standards. Judging will be made against the published judging rubric.

Announcement and Celebration

The awardee will be informed of the decision and given an outline of the next steps required so that relevant information for the award announcement can be collected. The CELL Program Chair will work with the awardee to select the appropriate ACS meeting (Spring, Fall or Digital) for the winning presentation. Awardees are expected to provide an oral presentation within the CELL division program using publicly available information that highlights the winning features of the award. The awardee will be eligible for a CELL spring banquet ticket coincident with or after the scheduled ACS spring/fall/digital technical presentation.

Prize

The Award prize consists of a plaque, a banquet ticket and five (5) gift memberships to the CELL division for use within the nominee’s company. The Award does not include travel or ACS meeting registration expenses for awardees.