Professor Larry Que elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Que recognized for ‘distinguished and continuing achievements in original research’
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (05/05/2022)—University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering Professor Lawrence “Larry” Que Jr. has been elected as a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his excellence in original scientific research.
Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer. Que is one of 120 researchers nationwide to be elected to the Academy this year.
Que is a Regents Professor and Distinguished University Teaching Professor in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Department of Chemistry. He has made a tremendous impact in the field of bioinorganic chemistry and is known for playing a pioneering role in understanding the function that nonheme iron centers play in dioxygen activation in biology. His accomplishments have placed him among the most important practitioners of bioinorganic chemistry in the world with ramifications in biochemistry, homogeneous and heterogeneous oxidation catalysis, and organic synthesis methodology.
Credited with establishing the University of Minnesota as a world-renowned center of excellence in bioinorganic chemistry, Que also led the effort to establish the U's Center for Metals in Biocatalysis, which comprises faculty and students from multiple departments who share interests in exploring the roles of metals in biology.
Que is the author of more than 540 publications and has presented more than 400 invited lectures.
He has received many awards for his work, including the National Institutes of Health MERIT Award in 2000, the Royal Society of Chemistry Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms Award in 2011, and the American Chemical Society Award in Inorganic Chemistry in 2017. He was also elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2001 and a fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2011.
Que received his B.S. in chemistry from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1969 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1973.
The National Academy of Sciences is an honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Among the Academy’s renowned members are Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright, and Alexander Graham Bell. About 200 Academy members have won Nobel Prizes.
To see the full list of this year's elected members, visit the National Academy of Sciences website.
Story by Olivia Hultgren