2026 CME STEM Leadership Award™ Honoring Ann Ziff

Chemical Marketing & Economics (CME) warmly invites you to the CME STEM Leadership Award™ Luncheon and Gala Reception in celebration of our 72nd Anniversary, taking place in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, December 11, 2026, from 11:00 AM to 2:30 PM. The honorees in the following categories are:

• Lifetime Achievement – Ann Ziff, The Metropolitan Opera Chairman
• Extraordinary Fundamental Research – Omar Yagui, 2025 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, UC Berkeley Professor

The keynote address will be delivered by Professor Yaghi.

Past CME STEM Award winners include seven Nobel Laureates—among them Frances Arnold, Carolyn Bertozzi, and Barry Sharpless, one of only five individuals ever to receive two Nobel Prizes—as well as Craig Venter, Founder of Celera Genomics; Henry Kravis, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of KKR; Roy Vagelos, former Chairman of Regeneron; Seifi Ghasemi, former Chairman of Air Products; Jon M. Huntsman, Sr., Founder of Huntsman Corp.; Ken Frazier, former Chairman of Merck; Jim Fitterling, Chair of Dow; James and Marilyn Simons, Founders of the Simons Foundation; Kim Budil, Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Martin Keller, Director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Paul Kearns, Director of Argonne National Laboratory; and Robert Langer, MIT Professor and the most cited engineer in history (h-index 332)

Make a Difference

• Sponsor a table and bring guests
• Donate a table or seats to support STEM students
• Make a STEM contribution to help advance talent for sustainable innovation

Attire and Registration

This is a Gala Luncheon. Attire is Business Elegant with dark suits and ties for men and equivalent level or formality for women. To participate, please use the “Register” button at the top right of this webpage. The venue location will be shared with attendees after registration. To explore high-impact STEM sponsorship opportunities, please email us at contact(at)cme-stem(dot)org

The 2026 CME STEM Leadership Award for Lifetime Achievement honoree is Ann Ziff, Chairman of the Metropolitan Opera. Under Ziff’s leadership, the Met has expanded its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, deepened school outreach reaching thousands of students annually, and advanced collaborations with the American Museum of Natural History to inspire youth in science, culture, and creative problem-solving. Her philanthropic support through the Bill and Ann Ziff Foundation has bolstered music therapy and environmental education via partnerships with Sing for Hope and the New York Restoration Project. Beyond the Met, Ziff co-founded Smile Train, a global charity delivering life-changing medical care, and has chaired efforts with the Rainforest Alliance and Conservation International to promote sustainability and community resilience.

Ann Ziff has led the Metropolitan Opera for over a decade, steering the institution toward financial sustainability and groundbreaking programming that elevates opera’s role in global discourse. A dedicated philanthropist emphasizing arts, education, and environmental conservation, Ziff holds a Master’s in Social Work from New York University and a Master’s in Music Therapy from Temple University, where she serves as Visiting Professor at the Boyer College of Music and Dance. She is Vice Chairman of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and serves on boards including the World Science Festival, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Opera, Sing for Hope, and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Ziff co-founded and chaired Smile Train, founded the Caribbean Community Theater, and has lectured at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. Her contributions have earned honorary doctorates from Juilliard, Wittenberg University, and the Manhattan School of Music, along with Lincoln Center’s Philanthropy in the Arts Award.

Founded in 1883, The Metropolitan Opera is the world’s preeminent opera company, renowned for its commitment to artistic excellence, innovative productions, and global outreach. Each season, the Met presents more than 200 performances to audiences of over 800,000, while its Live in HD series reaches millions worldwide, fostering cultural education and inspiration across disciplines.

The 2026 CME STEM Leadership Award for Extraordinary Fundamental Research honoree is Omar Yaghi, 2025 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Yaghi pioneered reticular chemistry and invented metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)—highly porous, crystalline materials formed by linking metal ions or clusters with organic molecules. These “molecular sponges” feature vast internal surface areas (often exceeding thousands of square meters per gram) and enable transformative applications in clean energy, environmental sustainability, and beyond. MOFs can capture and store greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, harvest fresh water from desert air (even in low-humidity conditions), store hydrogen and methane for fuel cells, catalyze chemical reactions, and remediate toxic pollutants. His groundbreaking work, shared with Susumu Kitagawa and Richard Robson, was recognized by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the development of metal–organic frameworks.” Yaghi also developed covalent organic frameworks (COFs) and zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), establishing reticular chemistry as a new field that allows precise, atom-by-atom design of functional materials.

Omar Yaghi has transformed materials science over three decades, becoming one of the most cited chemists in the world and driving innovations that address global challenges in energy, water scarcity, and climate change. As the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, he co-directs the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute and the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet, while serving as an affiliate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and founding director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute. A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (and president of the World Cultural Council since 2025), Yaghi’s prolific career includes over 300 publications and numerous prior honors, such as the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2018), BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2018), Tang Prize (2024), Balzan Prize (2024), and the Von Hippel Award (2025).

Founded in 1868, UC Berkeley (the University of California, Berkeley) is one of the world’s leading public research universities, renowned for its commitment to scientific excellence, groundbreaking discovery, and global impact. As a cradle for Nobel laureates in science, Berkeley has produced or been closely affiliated with dozens of Nobel Prize winners—over 60 total (including faculty, alumni, and researchers), with particularly profound contributions in physics, chemistry, and related fields. Each year, Berkeley’s faculty and students drive innovations that transform our understanding of the universe, from particle physics and quantum mechanics to gene editing, climate solutions, and materials science, inspiring generations of researchers and advancing humanity’s knowledge across disciplines.

An Event Co-Host will be NASA’s former Chief Scientist Dr. James Green—the only speaker we’ve featured with a 5.3 km asteroid named in his honor. Discovered in 1981 and officially renamed “Jamesgreen” by the International Astronomical Union in 2017, this minor planet is larger than 99% of known asteroids. You will find his full bio by clicking on the plus “+” sign on the bottom right of his picture. Since 2018, Dr. Green has partnered with CME to co-organize events such as the Annual CME NASA Symposium and the Earth & Space Sustainability Summit, bringing visionary leadership and a deep commitment to advancing STEM through collaboration across industry, academia, and government.

At a monthly CME STEM Talk prior to the December 11 event, Dr. Green will share a review and outlook on major developments in space exploration—spanning life sciences, advanced materials, and energy solutions. Among these frontiers, microgravity experiments aboard the International Space Station have accelerated biomedical innovation. One notable example is a top-selling cancer immunotherapy, now leading global pharmaceutical revenues, which benefited from space-based crystallization studies aimed at improving its formulation and delivery.

Celebrating Visionaries, Empowering the Future

CME is a forward-thinking nonprofit dedicated to advancing diverse talent and leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Our mission is to champion sustainable innovation across energy, materials, and life sciences—while connecting trailblazers across sectors. Through dynamic collaborations with NASA, the American Chemical Society (ACS), and the DOE National Laboratories, CME creates transformative experiences that unite Nobel Laureates, industry pioneers, and the public. Our hallmark programs—including the CME STEM Leadership Awards™, CME NASA Symposia, Earth & Space Sustainability Summits, STEM Festivals, and CME PMSE Student & Mentor Awards—ignite bold ideas and foster STEM talent.

CME is committed to fostering a welcoming, respectful, and professional environment at all its events. To uphold this standard and ensure a safe experience for all participants, we ask that every attendee adhere to the following Code of Conduct. The following behaviors are strictly prohibited:

• Harassment of attendees, staff, or organizers
• Unauthorized access to stages or restricted areas
• Disruption of presentations or event activities
• Use of demeaning, derogatory, or discriminatory language
• Deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, or harassing photography/recording
• Inappropriate physical contact
• Unwelcome sexual attention
• Any other actions deemed disruptive by the Executive Committee or security personnel

Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event. Violations may lead to immediate removal without refund or compensation. Violators may also face legal consequences to the full extent of applicable laws. CME reserves the right to revise this Code of Conduct at any time. Thank you for your cooperation.