Coppens to Recieve Harker Award From Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Philip Coppens, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University at Buffalo, has been selected as the first winner of the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute's David Harker, Ph.D., Award.

The award is presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of the science of crystallography. It was established in memory of David Harker, who directed the crystallography program at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and who continued an active research program at Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (then the Medical Foundation of Buffalo) in a research emeritus role.

The award will be presented at the Institute's Nobel Anniversary Dinner Program on Wednesday, Nov. 8, in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. The dinner will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the awarding of a Nobel Prize to Herbert Hauptman, Ph.D., president of the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute and UB research professor of computer science.

A UB faculty member since 1968, Coppens has pioneered studies of the use of X-ray-diffraction techniques to study the nature of bonding between atoms in molecules and crystals. He has used complex mathematical techniques to develop an X-ray method of "seeing" the electron clouds that surround atoms and hold them together to form molecules. Coppens' methods are considered to be classic standards for such analysis and are being applied in laboratories across the world.

In 1989, Coppens' research team was the first to determine the nature of small atomic distortions in certain types of high-temperature superconducting crystals, which affect the temperature at which they superconduct.

Coppens and his then-postdoctoral research associates, Mark R. Pressprich and Mark A. White, also completed the first X-ray diffraction study ever done of a molecule in an electronically excited state.

In 1993, Coppens was elected president of the International Union of Crystallography, which brings together 38 national crystallographic organizations, encompassing about 10,000 crystallographers worldwide.

Coppens is principal investigator for the State University of New York beamline at the National Synchotron Light Source located at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island.

In 1989, he received the highest French national university honor for foreign scholars, Doctor Honoris Causa, from the University of Nancy.

The author of more than 200 technical papers and articles, he has served as president and vice president of the American Crystallographic Association, and was the recipient of the association's Buerger Award. He served several terms as a member of the U.S. National Committee for Crystallography of the National Academy of Sciences.

Coppens lives in Williamsville.