On Apr. 3, 2000, the American Chemical Society (ACS) announced that the 2001 Priestley Medal was to be awarded to Fred Basolo from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “to recognize distinguished services to chemistry.”

Basolo was a highly influential pioneer in the field of inorganic chemistry, greatly expanding understanding of how metal centers influence chemical reactions. He was an award-winning teacher as well, and was active in ACS, serving as the society’s president in 1983.