cotton came to texas a&m as the robert a welch distinguished professor of chemistry in 1972 from mit where at age 31 in 1961 he had become the youngest mit faculty member to attain the rank of full professor his pioneering 35-year career at texas a&m revolutionized several fields of chemistry including inorganic chemistry protein chemistry structural chemistry and chemical bonding cotton was the originator of and leading authority in the field of compounds containing single and multiple bonds between metal atoms his other principal contributions dealt with protein structure spectroscopic studies of metal carbonyls and the dynamic behavior of fluxional organometallic and metal carbonyl compounds as a world-leading researcher in renewable energy noceras own pioneering discoveries have originated new paradigms that have defined the field of solar energy conversion and storage he created the field of proton coupled electron transfer (pcet) at a mechanistic level by making the first measurements that temporally resolved the movement of an electron coupled to a proton with pcet as a guiding framework nocera invented the artificial leaf and the bionic leaf accomplishing the solar fuels process of photosynthesis the splitting of water to hydrogen and oxygen using light from neutral water at atmospheric pressure and room temperature at efficiencies of greater than 10 percent his bionic leaf uses the hydrogen from the artificial leaf and carbon dioxide from air to make biomass and liquid fuels performing artificial photosynthesis that is 10 times more efficient than natural photosynthesis extending this approach nocera has achieved a renewable and distributed synthesis of ammonia (and fertilizer) at ambient conditions by coupling solar-based water splitting to a nitrogen-fixing bioorganism powered by the hydrogen produced from water splitting thus using only sunlight air and water he has created a distributed system powered by renewable energy to produce fuel and food using a similar process he has produced a living biofertilizer resulting in increased crop yields and early harvests while avoiding nitrogen runoff to date nocera has mentored 180 phd graduate and postdoctoral students 79 of whom have assumed faculty positions published more than 500 papers and presented in excess of 1 100 invited talks and 135 named lectureships in addition he has founded two companies sun catalytix a company committed to developing energy storage technologies for the widespread implementation of renewable energy and kula bio which is focused on the development of a living biofertilizer for renewable and distributed crop production and land restoration in 2014 lockheed martin purchased the assets of sun catalytix and is now commercializing related technology under the venture lockheed martin gridstar™ flow nocera is a member of the american philosophical society the american academy of arts and sciences the us national academy of sciences and the indian academy of sciences his research contributions have been recognized with many awards including the leigh ann conn prize for renewable energy eni prize iaps award burghausen prize and the united nations science and technology award as well as the american chemical societys inorganic chemistry harrison howe kosolapoff and remsen awards he was named one of time magazines 100 most influential people in the world and was 11th on the new statesmans list on the same topic "the breadth and depth of noceras science are truly astounding " said texas a&m chemist david c powers "in addition to his monumental contributions to energy science he has made significant discoveries in chemical bonding notably penning a seminal paper (with cotton) on the chemistry of the two-electron bond nocera is a most deserving cotton medalist and we are excited for the upcoming award symposium" for more information about the event contact texas a&m chemistry at (979) 845-9829 or via email at chemhead@chemtamuedu