Paul Anastas grew up near a coastal wetland in Massachusetts that was later destroyed to make way for a business park, inspiring him to become a scientist to protect the environment. He earned a PhD in chemistry and developed the field of green chemistry while working for the EPA to design chemicals that are less hazardous. In 1991, he coined the term "green chemistry" and established the EPA's Green Chemistry Program. After receiving the prestigious Heinz Award in 2006 for his work in green chemistry, he continues research at Yale to increase understanding of sustainability at the molecular level.

1. 12 www.nyas.org
grew up in the small town of Quin-
cy, Massachusetts, where I lived on
a hill overlooking one of the most
beautiful coastal wetlands imaginable.
When I was ten years old, the bulldoz-
ers rolled in. This upset me so much that
I tried to fight it in the usual way by cir-
culating petitions around the neighbor-
hood. Today perhaps 2 percent of the wet-
land still exists; the rest is a business park.
My father who was a biology teacher said
to me at the time that if you really care
about something you have to understand
it deeply in order to protect it. More than
anything else, that set me on track to be-
come a scientist.
After earning a BS in chemistry, I
went on to graduate school where I fo-
cused on the total synthesis of natural
products to make anti-cancer compounds.
This research eventually became difficult
because so many good people I knew were
being diagnosed with and dying of cancer.
Roger Garrett, the founding chief of the
Environmental Protection Agency’s In-
dustrial Chemistry Branch, had followed
my work on structure activity relation-
ships. In 1989 he offered me a position at
EPA where, instead of trying to treat or
cure cancer by making new molecules,
I was able to think about how molecules
could be created so that they never cause
cancer in the first place.
In 1991 I coined the term “green
chemistry” and developed and launched
the US EPA Green Chemistry Program.
The concept expanded rapidly. Green
chemistry wasn’t just about cancer-caus-
ing molecules; it was about toxicity from
the point of synthesis through all phases
of the chemical life cycle. In 1997 I was
awarded the EPA Silver Medal for design-
ing and developing the program, which
is currently based in the Office of Pollu-
tion Prevention and Toxic Substances,
and is best known for administering the
Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge
Awards. The achievements of the award
winners, excluding nominees, account
for removing or preventing the genera-
tion of enough hazardous substances to
fill a train of boxcars 200 miles long. And
this has occurred while maintaining or in-
creasing commercial profitability. Above
all, the field of green chemistry has shown
that economic and environmental needs
can be met simultaneously.
After establishing the US EPA Green
Chemistry Program, I served during the
Clinton and Bush administrations as As-
sistant Director for the Environment in
the White House Office of Science and
Technology, Policy Chief of the Industrial
Chemistry Branch and as the Director of
the US Green Chemistry Program. During
those years I focused on writing about and
promoting green chemistry principles. I
was astonished when Teresa Heinz deliv-
ered the news that I had won the Heinz
award for environment in 2006. This
moved me tremendously. Senator Heinz
was a visionary, and Teresa Heinz is an
environmental movement legend. When I
received the phone call from Teresa Heinz,
she asked if I was aware of the Heinz
awards, and at that moment I was certain
she was going to ask me if I would serve on
the judging panel. When she delivered the
I
Green
Chemistry?
He Invented
the TermBy Paul Anastas, as told to Abigail Jeffries
Member Memoir
Paul
ANASTAS
Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor
in the Practice of Chemistry for the
Environment and Director of the Center for
Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at
Yale University
NYAS member since: 2007
Age: 46
PhD: Chemistry, Brandeis University, 1989
Recent awards: Honorary Doctorate,
Queen’s University, Belfast, 2007; John
Jeyes Award, Royal Society of Chemistry,
2007; H. John Heinz III Award, Environment,
2006
Also enjoys: family woodland hikes and
reading bedtime stories to 17-month old
daughter Kennedy

2. The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Spring 2009 13
news I was speechless. I was so proud to be
in the company of the other winners.
Although science will not be the only
element in any government decision, it
should be a part of every decision. So far
President Obama’s administration has
demonstrated an early recognition that
science is a fundamental building block
of policy and that it needs to be a piece
of the wide range of policy decisions a
government makes. Many of our attempts
at environmental regulation have been
mandates for technological bandages that
didn’t always foster innovation. Though
some accomplished the desired goals, the
approaches were often costly and ineffi-
cient. The next generation of actions tak-
en by government in concert with NGOs
and industry needs to be far more about
innovation and thoughtful design.
Green chemistry uses the same tal-
ents, creativity and expertise as tradi-
tional chemistry and engineering but
from a new perspective. The research I do
in my current position at Yale is focused
on achieving increased understanding of
the molecular basis of sustainability so
that chemists—molecular architects—can
learn to design substances to have these
critical properties. The green chemistry
imperative says that because we now un-
derstand the molecular basis of hazard we
have an obligation to design molecules
so they don’t cause harm to humans or
the environment. Unfortunately, human
and institutional inertia can be obstacles
to living by the imperative. For instance,
students are intensely eager to learn about
and apply the principles of green chemis-
try but may not have access to instruction
until graduate school. We can do a better
job of showing students that science and
technology offer a path for those who
want to change the world.
There is a real understanding that
green chemistry is the way people want to
go, but we need to figure out how to facili-
tate the necessary shift in our molecular
infrastructure. We are currently getting
tremendous performance from chemicals
but at a great cost. The only way to address
the overwhelming challenges we face is to
address them at the most fundamental
level. This means considering feedstocks
and the way they are manufactured, and
then biodegradability at the end of the
product life cycle. I hope that my work will
highlight the power and potential molec-
ular scientists have to help the world even
more dramatically than we thought.
Abigail Jeffries is a freelance health and
science reporter based in Tolland, CT.
For a report on Paul Anastas’s presentation
at the May 2007 NYAS meeting,
Green Chemistry: Its Role in Building a
Sustainable World, go to www.nyas.org/
greenchem.
To view the Twelve Principles of
Green Chemistry visit: www.epa.gov/
greenchemistry/pubs/principles.html.
on the web