Shaik, a professor of organic chemistry, was one of 348 scientists from the U.S. and abroad selected this year for the honor, which will be presented on Feb. l4 during the AAAS annual meeting in Seattle, Wash.
Shaik was selected by the organization for his "distinguished contributions to the field of valence bond theory, contributing new ideas and thought-provoking models that have helped to rechart the mental map of chemistry."
Baghdad-born Prof. Shaik received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1978 and has been a member of the Hebrew University faculty since 1979. In 1997 he was appointed director of the university's Minerva Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry.
Previous honors received by Prof. Shaik include the Outstanding Young Chemist Award of the Israel Chemical Society, the Lise Meitner-Alexander von Humbodlt Research Award, the E.D. Bergmann Prize, the Israel Chemical Society Prize for the year 2000 and the Kolthoff Prize for 2000/01.