• Dr. Samuel Danishefsky, Professor of Chemistry
  Columbia University & the Sloan-Kettering Institute
   
  
• Dr. Paul Anderson, Senior Vice President of Chemistry
  DuPont-Merck Co., & President Elect of the American Chemical Society
   
  
• Dr. Joel Huff, Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry
  Merck, & Head of AIDS Discovery Research
   
  
• Dr. David Evans, Professor of Organic Chemistry & Chairman
  Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University

This Symposium was held in honor of Dr. Hirschmann on the occasion of his receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Ralph Hirschmann was born in Bavaria in 1922 and came to the United States in 1937. After receiving his baccalaureate degree at Oberlin College in 1943 and serving in the US Army, he began graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, where he received his Ph. D. degree in organic chemistry in 1950 with Bill Johnson. He began his career as a steroid chemist in the research laboratories of Merck, where he eventually became Senior Vice President of Chemistry. Ralph Hirschmann's scientific contributions to peptide chemistry and medicinal chemistry have been recognized by the Alan E. Pierce Award in 1983, the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry Award in 1,986, the Nichols Medal in 1988, and the Burger Award in 1994. Upon his retirement from Merck in 1989, Merck Sharp & Dohme established the ACS "Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry" and the Ralph F. Hirschmann Lectureship at the University of Wisconsin - Madison to pay lasting tribute to his achievements. He is currently the Makanini Professor of Bio-organic Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.