We are happy to announce that in recognition of his outstanding achievements towards the field of chemistry, Dr. Ferenc Darvas, the president of ThalesNano Inc., president of ComInnex Inc. and a number of other companies that he has founded in the field of chemistry research and innovation, has been honored and selected as a member of the 2016 class of Fellows of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Darvas is the first resident Hungarian to receive such a prestigious award and the only European in 2016. The ceremony was held on Monday, Aug. 22nd in the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. The fellows program began in 2009 as a way to recognize and honor ACS members for outstanding achievements in and contributions to science, the profession, and ACS.
Dr. Darvas is recognized as an efficient advocate of ACS in Europe and for Hungarian chemists overseas; he co-founded the Hungary ACS International Chemical Sciences Chapter in 2001, which he chaired for several years.
Dr. Darvas acquired his degrees in medical chemistry, then in computer sciences, furthermore PhD in experimental biology and in the use of artificial intelligence in drug design. Dr. Darvas is a serial inventor and entrepreneur, including inventions in process intensification through developing both combinatorial approaches and continuous-flow procedures. He was a pioneer in the field of molecular modeling (QSAR) and the use of cheminfometrics. He conceived the first industrialized solution-phase combinatorial synthesis technology (CMT), and initiated and co-developed H-Cube®, the #1 selling flow reactor in the world. For the development of H-Cube®, ThalesNano received a prestigious 100’s award of the R&D Magazine, and the Innovation award in Hungary, amongst many others.
Dr. Darvas is the founder and Chairman of the Flow Chemistry Society (Switzerland), co-founder of the International Society for QSAR, of the Society for Biomolecular Screening (currently SLAS) and the Hungarian Biotechnology Association. He is serving as associate professor at Florida International University, Miami, after teaching at the University of Florida (Gainesville), in Austria, Spain and in Hungary, at altogether 8 universities.
We heartily congratulate Dr. Darvas for this award and we look forward to seeing his future achievements and wish him the best with his endeavors!