Chemistry professors Peidong Yang and Carolyn Bertozzi received the 2014 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award last week during a ceremony at the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.

Presented by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on July 23, the awards honor scientists for research and development contributions in support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s science, energy and national security missions. A total of nine recipients, announced in May, received a medal and a $20,000 honorarium.

Since 1959, the award – named for UC Berkeley’s first Nobel Laureate and the founder of Berkeley Lab – has recognized mid-career scientists and engineers in the United States who have advanced new research and scientific discovery in the chemical, biological, environmental and computer sciences; condensed matter and materials; fusion and plasma sciences; high energy and nuclear physics; and national security and nonproliferation.

Peidong Yang, the S.K. and Angela Chan Distinguished Professor of Energy and a faculty scientist at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was honored for “discoveries advancing synthesis and understanding of nanoscale materials, and for developing novel semiconductor nanowires and metal nanocrystals impacting applications and devices.”

Carolyn Bertozzi, professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology, was honored for “transformative discoveries in the chemistry and biology of complex carbohydrates, and for innovating nanotechnologies to probe biological systems, optimize bioreactors and develop tailored devices and materials.” A senior faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab, Bertozzi joined the Stanford University chemistry faculty this summer.

Another recipient, Berkeley Lab physicist David J. Schlegel, was honored for “exceptional leadership and innovation to transform cosmology into a precision science, and for its impact to map the expansion rate of the Universe, ascertain the nature of Dark Energy, and test General Relativity.”

A fourth honoree, Brian Wirth of the University of Tennessee, is a visiting scientist in UC Berkeley’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and former Berkeley Lab scientist. He was chosen for “transformational advances in computational multiscale modeling of radiation effects in materials, and for their impact to fission and fusion energy technologies.”

The other recipients are Mei Bai of Brookhaven National Laboratory; Pavel Bochev of Sandia National Laboratories; Eric E. Dors and Christopher L. Fryer of Los Alamos National Laboratory; and Jizhong (Joe) Zhou of the University of Oklahoma.

For more detail on the recipients, link to the DOE website.