The Welch Foundation, based in Houston, Texas, is one of the United States' oldest and largest private funding sources for chemistry researchers. It is a non-profit organization named for Robert Alonzo Welch, an industrialist who provided the funds to set up the foundation, along with research grants, endowments, and funding for chemical research. Since its founding in 1954, the organization has contributed to the advancement of chemistry through research grants, departmental grant programs, endowed chairs, and other special projects at educational institutions in Texas. The foundation hosts an annual chemical research conference in Houston that attracts chemists from around the globe and also sponsors The Welch Award in Chemistry as well as the Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research.
Grants, scholarships, endowments, and awards The Welch Award in Chemistry, currently a $500,000 award, which recognizes the value of chemical research contributions for the benefit of humankind.Welch Award in Chemistry The Norman Hackerman award in chemical research, currently a $100,000 award, which recognizes the work of young researchers in Texas.Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research Research Grants support fundamental chemical research at universities, colleges, or other educational institutions within the state of Texas. Departmental Grants support chemical research by members of the chemistry department faculty at educational institutions in Texas. Endowed Chairs provide a faculty position for an eminent scientist. To be considered for an endowed chair, a Texas education institution must have a Ph.D. program in chemistry. Catalyst for Discovery Program Grants is intended to accelerate progress in fundamental chemical research by supporting research teams in Texas aimed at significant problems at the leading edge of chemistry. Annually, two grants of up to five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) each will be awarded to highly meritorious proposals. The Postdoctoral Fellows Grant Program provides three-year fellowships to recent PhD graduates from around the world to support the development of their chemical research careers in Texas. The aim is to fund fellows who intend to tackle important problems in chemistry in interesting and novel ways in laboratories that provide world-class training. The Welch eXperimental (WelchX) Collaboration Retreats aims to bring together Texas researchers to topically focused chemistry meetings and stimulate them to ideate on challenging issues of our time. Early-to mid-career tenured faculty will be invited to this fully in-person summer meeting to stimulate collaborations that foster lasting connections among the participants, thus increasing the density of research ties across Texas and spurring the growth of basic research in the chemical sciences.
Welch Award in Chemistry YearRecipient1972Karl August Folkers, The University of Texas at Austin1974Albert Eschenmoser, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology1976Neil Bartlett, University of California, Berkeley1978Edgar Bright Wilson, Harvard University1980Sune Bergström, Karolinska Institute1981Paul Doughty Bartlett, Texas Christian University1982Frank Westheimer, Harvard University1983Henry Taube, Stanford University1984Kenneth Pitzer, University of California, Berkeley1985Duilio Arigoni, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology1986George C. Pimentel, University of California, Berkeley1987Harry George Drickamer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign1988Richard Barry Bernstein, University of California, Los Angeles1989Norman R. Davidson, California Institute of Technology1990John D. Roberts, California Institute of Technology1990William von Eggers Doering, Harvard University1991Earl R. Stadtman, National Institutes of Health1991Edwin G. Krebs, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington1992Richard Smalley, Rice University1993Gilbert Stork, Columbia University1994Jack Halpern, The University of Chicago1994F. Albert Cotton, Texas A&M University1995Jeremy R. Knowles, Harvard University1995Robert H. Abeles, Brandeis University1996Koji Nakanishi, Columbia University1997Ahmed Zewail, California Institute of Technology1998Pierre Chambon, College de France1999Richard Zare, Stanford University2000A. Ian Scott, Texas A&M University2000Sir Alan R. Battersby, Cambridge University2001Roger D. Kornberg, Stanford University2002Harden M. McConnell, Stanford University2003Ronald Breslow, Columbia University2004Allen J. Bard, The University of Texas at Austin2005George M. Whitesides, Harvard University2006Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., University of California, Berkeley2007William H. Miller, University of California, Berkeley2007Noel S. Hush, University of Sydney2008Alexander Rich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology2009Harry B. Gray, California Institute of Technology2010JoAnne Stubbe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Christopher T. Walsh, Harvard Medical School2011John S. Waugh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology2012David A. Evans, Harvard University2013Louis E. Brus, Columbia University2014Robert G. Bergman, University of California, Berkeley2015Stephen C. Harrison, Harvard Medical School2016Richard H. Holm, Harvard University Stephen J. Lippard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology2017John B. Goodenough, University of Texas at Austin2018Adriaan Bax, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases2019Armand Paul Alivisatos, University of California Berkeley Charles M. Lieber, Harvard University2020Steven L. McKnight, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2021Chi-Huey Wong, The Scripps Research Institute2022Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Stanford University2023Jacqueline Barton, California Institute of Technology2024Eric N. Jacobsen, Harvard University2025Stuart L. Schreiber, Harvard University Peter G. Schultz, Scripps Research2026Robert S. Langer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research Recipients Source: YearRecipient2002Andrew R. Barron, Rice University2003Xiaodong Wang, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2004Jianpeng Ma, Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University2005Zhijian "James" Chen, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2006Paul S. Cremer, Texas A&M University2007Patrick G. Harran, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2008Francis T.F. Tsai, Baylor College of Medicine2009Cecilia Clementi, Rice University2010Kim Orth, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2011Jason H. Hafner, Rice University2012Oleg V. Ozerov, Texas A&M University2013Olafs Daugulis, University of Houston2014Benjamin P. Tu, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2015Stephan Link, Rice University2016Christopher J. Ellison, The University of Texas at Austin2017Neal M. Alto, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2017Delia J. Milliron, The University of Texas at Austin2018Jeffrey D. Rimer, University of Houston2019Uttam K. Tambar, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2020Vincent S. Tagliabracci, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2021Ilya J. Finkelstein, The University of Texas at Austin2022Guihua Yu, The University of Texas at Austin2022Ryan Hibbs, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center2023Jason S. McLellan, The University of Texas at Austin2024Livia Schiavinato Eberlin, Baylor College of Medicine2025Haotian Wang, Rice University2026Sheel Dodani, The University of Texas at Dallas
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