In 1956, the American Chemical Society awarded the Priestley Medal to Carl S. Marvel “to recognize distinguished services to chemistry,” the Society’s most prestigious award.

From 1920 to 1961, Dr. Marvel was on the staff of the University of Illinois in Urbana, and from the date of his first retirement through 1987 he was a faculty member at the University of Arizona. He consulted for nearly sixty years for the DuPont Experimental Station. He was a dominant figure in American organic chemistry and has been recognized as the “father” of synthetic polymer chemistry.