Michael Jung, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a researcher at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been selected to receive the Richard C. Tolman Medal. The award, named for a pioneering chemist at Caltech during the first half of the 20th century, is given annually by the Southern California Section of the American Chemical Societ in recognition of outstanding contributions to chemistry. The award medal will be presented to Jung at a banquet in Los Angeles in the spring.

Jung worked with Charles Sawyers and Howard Scher of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to develop the anti-androgen drug enzalutamide (Xtandi), which has been found effective in slowing or stopping the progression of prostate cancer for several months and received FDA approval in 2012. He consults for more than 20 industrial biotechnology and pharmaceutical laboratories. He is an authority on synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry and has 60 patents and applications. His current interests include several collaborative projects for the treatment of many diseases, including cancer.

Jung earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University and conducted postdoctoral research in Zurich before joining the faculty of UCLA, where he has taught for more than 40 years and holds a joint faculty position in the department of molecular and medical pharmacology. He is director of the David Geffen School of Medicine Bioscience Synthetic Chemistry Core and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute.

Jung is the 15th UCLA Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty member to be awarded the Tolman medal, two of whom won the Nobel PrizeThe first Tolman Medal was awarded in 1960 to UCLA chemistry and biochemistry professor William G. Young, for whom UCLA's Young Hall is named. Other previous UCLA faculty recipients were Francis E. Blacet (1968), Robert L. Pecsok (1970), Howard Reiss (1973), Herbert Kaesz (1980), Nobel Laureate Paul D. Boyer (1981), Nobel Laureate Donald C. Cram (1984), M. Frederick Hawthorne (1986), Mostafa El-Sayed (1989),  Christopher S. Foote (1995), Kendall N. Houk (1998), Fred Wudl (2005), Joan S. Valentine (2008) and Richard B. Kaner (2009).

Learn more about Jung’s research at his website.