Charles T. Kresge

Kresge was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2007 for his contributions to the rational design and engineering of mesoporous inorganic materials.

Kresge has been issued over 60 US patents, been featured in 48 scientific publications, and is the editor of one book. His awards include the Donald W. Breck Award in 1994 and the Thomas Alva Edison Award in 2008. He was also honored by election to the US National Academy of Engineering (2007). In 2011, he was Honorary Chair of the 22nd North American Catalysis Society meeting in Detroit, Michigan.

Kresge is known primarily for the discovery, characterization, and commercial application of a number of significant families of microporous and mesoporous materials. He is most recognized for his discovery of the mesoporous silica given the designation MCM-41. He is also the inventor of the MCM-36, MCM-56, MCM-67 and MCM-68 compositions of matter. The paper that appeared in the journal Nature describing the MCM-41 materials is one of the most cited chemistry papers of all time. and the American Chemical Society referred to their discovery as one of the most important discoveries in chemistry The discovery of MCM-41 is widely cited. Nature, in celebration of its sesquicentennial anniversary, selected Kresge's 1992 paper one of the "10 extraordinary papers" published over the last 150 years.

Kresge received his bachelor's in chemistry from Swarthmore College in 1975 and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1979. His graduate career began at Northwestern University, where he began working with Ralph Pearson. He followed Pearson when he took an appointment at UCSB. His thesis study was "Equilibrium and Kinetic Studies of the Protonation and Deprotonation of Some Transition Metal Complexes".