American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal

The American Institute of Chemists (AIC) Gold Medal recognizes extraordinary accomplishments in chemistry or chemical engineering in the United States.

First presented in 1926, previous winners include Nobel laureates Glenn T. Seaborg, K. Barry Sharpless, Herbert C. Brown, Elizabeth Blackburn, and Dudley Herschbach, as well as renowned researchers Chad A. Mirkin, Mary Lowe Good, Steven J. Lippard, Jacqueline Barton, and George M. Whitesides.

The AIC Gold Medal has been presented jointly with the Science History Institute since 2003. Winners are honored each spring.

2026 Medalist: Adriaan Bax

The 2026 AIC Gold Medal will be presented to Adriaan Bax on Monday, September 14 during an awards luncheon at the Institute in Old City Philadelphia.

Adriaan “Ad” Bax is an NIH Distinguished Investigator in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He is internationally recognized for his seminal contributions to the development of NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy, which have transformed the field into the most versatile analytical tool in chemistry and a powerful method for revealing the structure and dynamics of biological macromolecules. His numerous innovations have had broad impact across analytical, organic, and medicinal chemistry, as well as biochemistry and protein science.

Bax received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, conducting much of his graduate research at the University of Oxford under the mentorship of Ray Freeman. After postdoctoral work at the National Solid-State NMR Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, he joined the NIH in 1983, where he now heads the Biophysical NMR Spectroscopy Section.

Bax has authored more than 500 scientific publications, many of which have had an exceptionally high impact in the field. He serves on multiple editorial and scientific advisory boards and is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Society. He has trained approximately 60 postdoctoral fellows, many of whom now hold faculty positions at leading research institutions worldwide. In addition to the AIC Gold Medal, Bax’s numerous honors also include the Hans Neurath Award of the Protein Society, the Kirkwood Medal from Yale University, the Glenn T. Seaborg Medal from UCLA, the National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Reviewing, and the Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry.

Winners of the AIC Gold Medal

For a full list of winners of the AIC Gold Medal going back to 1926, visit the AIC’s website.

About the American Institute of Chemists

From its earliest days in 1923 to the present, the American Institute of Chemists has fostered the advancement of the chemical profession in the United States.

The AIC has a corresponding dedication “to promote and protect the public welfare; to establish and maintain standards of practice for these professions; and to promote the professional experience through certification as to encourage competent and efficient service.”