Chemistry’s Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Andy Dicks, has recently been named the recipient of the 2025 Career Achievement in Green Chemistry Education Award, from the ACS Green Chemistry Institute.
“I view this very much as being recognition for the department rather than for me personally,” said Dicks, in a March interview. “So many faculty, students and staff--such as our undergraduate laboratory technicians--have contributed to where we are now.”
Green chemistry awards are given to instructors who have been working to advance sustainable chemistry in their teaching and research. The Career Achievement Award recognizes long-term commitment to green chemistry education.
Dicks said that commitment goes back, in his case, to 2003. “At that time there weren't many resources on how to best teach green and sustainable chemistry at the university level, though the now well-known Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry had already been established a few years previously by John Warner and Paul Anastas.”
Green chemistry emphasizes trying to do everyday laboratory work in a more environmentally-responsible manner. “The Twelve Principles essentially boil down to two seemingly simple ones: try to minimize (or ideally eliminate) waste, and try to minimize (or ideally eliminate) hazards.”
“Elimination of waste and hazards will always be difficult – and we should consider energy costs as waste, along with material waste. It's an iterative process - nothing is perfectly green when it comes to chemistry. But we must always strive for improvement, bearing in mind that trade-offs will be required.
“Knowledge of toxicology is a key aspect of all this as we often wish to design new materials that will be environmentally benign and biodegradable. It's hard to do this without understanding how molecular structure factors into the toxicological profile of a substance.”
Amy Cannon, the director of Beyond Benign—a not-for-profit organization committed to promoting green chemistry education—nominated Dicks for the award, citing him as “one of the most impactful educators within the green chemistry education community.”
“He has inspired countless others to bring green chemistry to their teaching and practice through his high-quality work and through his open approach to mentoring and advising. The community is fortunate to have such a leader,” said Cannon.
In 2003 Dicks took inspiration from work being done at the University of Oregon by Jim Hutchison, Julie Haack and Ken Doxsee, who had written a manual describing alternative ways for undergraduates to do chemistry using more benign chemicals and energy-efficient processes.
“I remember thinking, "this seems so sensible, relevant, and fascinating!"”
Working from those principles, he and Prof. Rob Batey worked closely together to develop CHM 343H (Organic Synthesis Techniques) in 2008. "Rob delivered the classes and I designed new experiments that showcased examples of green chemistry to students.”
“We were ahead of the curve in doing this. One example was using water as an alternative reaction solvent. Organic chemists have historically shied away from doing this, as water was traditionally seen as incompatible with many reactions.”
Students were involved in the process from the beginning, he said. “All experiments and other activities in this area were co-designed either by undergraduates in research courses such as CHM 499Y, or by graduate students via our successful Chemistry Teaching Fellowship Program, who are often members of the departmental Green Chemistry Initiative.”
“More recently we’ve got students to design-their-own individualized synthesis towards a target molecule and challenged them to be as green as possible in doing so.”
A result of these initiatives is that CHM 343H has evolved to become the capstone course in the Department’s Focus in Green Chemistry program. Started in 2021, the Focus is open to any of Chemistry’s specialist and major students and currently has about sixty students enrolled. “Our Focus initiative recently earned the department a Sustainable Action Award from the U of T Sustainability Office,” noted Dicks.
“I've always been keen to share what we have been doing in this venue with others, as I feel so passionately about it. I edited a book in 2010 called Green Organic Chemistry in Lecture and Laboratory, which brought together things we were doing at U of T with examples from other schools and collaborators, like Loyd Bastin of Widener University in Pennsylvania.”
“That book is showing its age now, however many people have contacted me over the years to say it was the resource that got them to start teaching green chemistry at their institution,” he said. “So that is gratifying. “
“More broadly, I'm very proud of the team-teaching effort we've established departmentally which has led to green chemistry being embedded in seven or eight undergraduate courses. This accomplishment has been due to the efforts of Professors John De Backere, Jessica D'eon, Kylie Luska, Barb Morra, and Hui Peng, among others.”
“We strongly believe this is a maximal impact approach,” he said. "Eventually we will drop the "green" label and students will just see what we are teaching as being "chemistry".”
Dicks will receive the award at the opening dinner and awards ceremony of the 29th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, June 23-26, 2025.
Eventually we will drop the "green" label and students will just see what we are teaching as being "chemistry." -- Prof. Andy Dicks