The UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry is pleased to announce that Distinguished Professor Richard Kaner (UCLA) has been chosen as the 2026 Seaborg Medalist.
The Seaborg Medal, established in 1987, is the highest honor our department bestows for distinguished contributions to science, technological innovation, and/or public service in science.
We will honor Professor Richard Kaner at the 2026 Seaborg Symposium and Medal Dinner on Friday, March 20, 2026.
The Seaborg Symposium is the department’s annual celebration, centering around the science of the year’s Seaborg Medalist. For next year’s event, we will have an afternoon symposium entitled “’Materials for a Better World”, with talks by Kaner and five other prominent scientists: Prof. Zhenan Bao (Stanford University), Prof. Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh (The University of Sydney), Prof. Sarah Tolbert (UCLA), Prof. Gordon Wallace (University of Wollongong), Prof. Fred Wudl (University of California, Santa Barbara)
The symposium will take place at 1 p.m. on the UCLA campus in the California NanoSystem Institute (CNSI) auditorium. A poster session by postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students will take place before the symposium in the CNSI lobby starting at noon.
The Glenn T. Seaborg Medal will be presented to Kaner at the evening awards banquet in the UCLA Carnesale Commons – Palisades Ballroom. The evening events will begin with a reception at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner and the medal awards ceremony.
All are welcome to attend the Seaborg events. The symposium is free of charge but registration is required for the evening reception and dinner. The dinner ticket price and registration information will be available later in the fall at www.seaborg.ucla.edu. If you would like to be notified when the registration website is available, please contact Isaiah Gutierrez, events@chem.ucla.edu.
Please plan to join us for these exciting events honoring Kaner and his career.
About Professor Richard Kaner
Professor Richard Kaner (pictured above) was born and raised in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, a town of 13,000 located on the shores of Lake Michigan. He began his academic journey at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he joined the solid-state chemistry laboratory of Professor Aaron Wold shortly after arriving on campus. By the end of his freshman year, Kaner had already published his first scientific paper, earning first authorship for successfully growing the world’s first single crystals of iridium diphosphide. After publishing two additional papers during his undergraduate years, he pursued his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, Kaner worked under the guidance of Professors Alan MacDiarmid and Alan Heeger on polyacetylene, the first known conducting polymer. His doctoral research focused on the electrochemistry of polyacetylene and contributed to the development of the first conducting polymer batteries. MacDiarmid and Heeger, along with Hideki Shirakawa, were later awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their pioneering work in this field.
Following his Ph.D. in 1984, Kaner conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley with Professor Neil Bartlett. There, he explored novel graphite materials substituted with boron and/or nitrogen.
Kaner joined the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1987, in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. He earned tenure in 1991, became a full professor in 1993, and was named a Distinguished Professor in 2012. In 2017, he was appointed to the Dr. Myung Ki Hong Endowed Chair in Materials Innovation. Kaner also holds a joint appointment in the UCLA Department of Materials Science & Engineering.
An internationally recognized leader in materials science, Kaner has published more than 500 peer-reviewed articles and holds 94 U.S. patents. His research has garnered over 100,000 citations, placing him among the world’s most highly cited scientists according to Clarivate Analytics.
Kaner’s honors include fellowships from the Dreyfus, Fulbright, Guggenheim, Packard, and Sloan Foundations, as well as prestigious awards such as the Materials Research Society Medal, the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize, the Qian Baojun International Fiber Award, and the Chemical Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists. He has also received the Fred Basolo Medal and multiple American Chemical Society awards, including the Buck-Whitney Research Award, the Tolman Medal, the Chemistry of Materials Award, and the Applied Polymer Science Award. His groundbreaking work spans refractory materials, novel ceramic synthesis, intercalation compounds, superhard metals, graphene, and conducting polymers.
He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Physical Society (APS), the Materials Research Society (MRS), the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc), and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
In addition to his academic achievements, Kaner has successfully translated his research into industry. He is the founder of four technology companies:
- Nanotech Energy, which develops nonflammable graphene-based lithium-ion batteries;
- SILQ Technologies, offering surface treatments that reduce hospital-acquired infections in medical devices;
- SuperMetalix, a leader in producing superhard metals for cutting and polishing applications;
- PolyCera, Inc., a membrane technology company (acquired by PSP.US) that produces advanced filtration systems for oil-water separations, including applications in hydraulic fracturing cleanup.
About the Glenn T. Seaborg Medal
Dr. Glenn Seaborg is shown at the University of California, Berkeley on Thursday, April 17, 1997 with an elements table sculpted by a fan. (AP Photo/Susan Ragan)
The Glenn T. Seaborg Medal was first awarded in 1987 to UCLA alumnus Nobel Laureate (1951 Chemistry) Glenn T. Seaborg (B.S. ’34) (pictured right), one of the most remarkable and influential chemists of the 20th Century and for whom element 106, Seaborgium, is named. The purpose of the medal is to honor persons who have made exceptional scientific contributions in the fields of chemistry or biochemistry. Awarded annually, the winner of the Seaborg Medal is selected by the executive committee of the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
In addition to Seaborg, nine other Nobel Laureates have been honored with the Seaborg Medal – UCLA professors Donald Cram (1989) and Paul Boyer (1998), UCLA alumni Bruce Merrifield (1993) PhD ’49 and Richard Heck (2011) BS ’52/PhD ’54, and Richard Smalley (2002), Harold Varmus (2012), Stefan Hell (2015), Richard Henderson (2018), and Carolyn Bertozzi (2022). To learn more, visit the Seaborg Medal Recipients website.
Questions? Please contact Isaiah Gutierrez, Seminar and Events Coordinator, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, (818) 588-1572, isaiahgtz@chem.ucla.edu.
