[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 14 (Thursday, January 31, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S436]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO DR. FRED HAWTHORNE

 Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, today I wish to honor Dr. Fred 
Hawthorne, who recently was named as a recipient of the National Medal 
of Science for his important research involving the use of the chemical 
element boron in the treatment of cancer, arthritis, and other 
diseases. On February 1, 2013, Dr. Hawthorne will be one of only 22 
recipients from across the country receiving the award from President 
Obama in a ceremony at the White House. This recognition certainly is 
well-deserved.
  As the director of the International Institute of Nano and Molecular 
Medicine at the University of Missouri, as well as the Curators' 
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Radiology, Dr. Hawthorne has 
pioneered the field of boron research throughout his impressive career. 
The National Medal of Science, the highest award the country can bestow 
upon our scientists, is a fitting recognition of his critically 
important and innovative work.
  Having grown up in Missouri and Kansas, Fred Hawthorne enrolled in 
1944 as a chemical engineering student at the Missouri School of Mines 
and Metallurgy, now the Missouri University of Science and Technology. 
Hawthorne later transferred to Pomona College in California, where he 
completed his degree in chemistry. In 1953, he earned his Ph.D. from 
UCLA for his work in organic chemistry. In the following years, 
Hawthorne's work took him across the country--from Iowa to Alabama, 
Pennsylvania to Massachusetts--before returning him to UCLA in 1969, 
where he continued his ground-breaking research for more than 37 years.
  Upon retiring from his academic career at UCLA in 2009, Hawthorne 
returned once again to Missouri to help build MU's International 
Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine. Thanks to Hawthorne's 
direction, this research center is an international leader in the field 
of boron neutron capture therapy, the cell-selective radiation method 
he helped pioneer. His work has shown incredible promise in developing 
noninvasive treatments for cancer and other diseases. As a cancer 
survivor myself, I am especially grateful for the treatments Dr. 
Hawthorne is exploring to help the many people whom the disease 
affects.
  Fred Hawthorne's years of dedicated research certainly have made 
lasting contributions to the fields of science and medicine. I thank 
him again for his important work and congratulate him on this hard-
earned recognition.

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