The award citation reads "For his insight, courage and creativity in bringing powder diffraction to the macromolecular community."
Von Dreele’s research focuses on the development of x-ray and neutron powder diffraction, and its application to a wide variety of scientific problems. He pioneered the General Structure Analysis System program suite for Rietveld analysis, an exceptionally valuable method for structural analysis of nearly all classes of crystalline materials not available as single crystals. He has been using the Rietveld Method since 1972. His current research is in further extensions of protein powder diffraction including investigation of crystal growth, phase transformations, radiation damage and exploring possible routes to de novo protein structure determination from powder data.
Von Dreele was Professor of Chemistry at Arizona State University (1971-1987) and a Staff Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (1987-2003). He has been at Argonne since April 2003.
He is the author or co-author on more than 150 scientific publications on crystal structure results and techniques, most of which involve Rietveld refinement, including a description of the first protein structure solved from powder diffraction data.
The International Centre for Diffraction Data is a non-profit scientific organization dedicated to collecting, editing, publishing and distributing powder diffraction data for the identification of crystalline materials.
The J.D. Hanawalt Award is named for Professor J. Donald Hanawalt, whose pioneering work in the 1930s led to the development of the PDF database structure and search/match procedures still in use today. The award is presented every three years for an important, recent contribution to the field of powder diffraction.
The Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory is one of five national synchrotron radiation light sources supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science to carry out applied and basic research to understand, predict, and ultimately control matter and energy at the electronic, atomic, and molecular levels, provide the foundations for new energy technologies, and support DOE missions in energy, environment, and national security. To learn more about the Office of Science x-ray user facilities, visit http://science.energy.gov/user-facilities/basic-energy-sciences/.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.