Paul Anastas, a Yale professor and pioneer in developing non-hazardous chemicals, wins the 2021 Volvo Environment Prize, one of the world's most respected scientific environmental awards. The research of Paul Anastas "is revolutionizing the chemical industry, a key contribution to meeting the sustainability challenge," says the Prize Jury.
Everything we touch, see and feel is chemical, whether it's furniture, clothes we wear, medicines we take, or electronics that we use. For the past two centuries, chemistry has been creating technological miracles, increasing the human quality of life. But its performance has also led to unintended consequences of pollution, waste, and toxicity.
Paul Anastas, widely known as the "father of green chemistry", set about to change this early in his career as a staff chemist in the US Environmental Protection Agency. He co-founded the Green Chemistry Institute and later served as an advisor in the White House and chief scientist at EPA. Professor Anastas is currently Director of Yale University's Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering.
"Green chemistry is not about sacrifice," says Paul Anastas. "The new products of green chemistry not only perform as well, they almost always perform better than the incumbent technologies. It's because, historically, our way of converting one chemical into another has been rather brutish and ugly. We heat, beat and treat these substances, often making them more toxic. That increases the risk of them reacting with our bodies and the biosphere".
