Art Schwarting, Jack Beal & A. Douglas Kinghorn Awards
Arthur Schwarting
Professor Schwarting was one of the founding members of the ASP. He had the distinction in 1943 of receiving the first Ph.D. awarded by the Ohio State College of Pharmacy. That same year, he accepted a position at Univ. Nebraska. He then accepted a faculty position at Univ. Connecticut School of Pharmacy in 1949. He was promoted to dean in 1970 and remained at UConn until retiring in 1980. He had a profound effect on the field of Pharmacognosy, mainly through his teaching and the students he mentored as a graduate advisor. He was an outstanding teacher, inspiring both undergraduate and graduate students. His approach to Pharmacognosy was radical in that he treated the field first from a chemistry perspective, classifying drug plants by their active components rather than traditional taxonomic and morphological groupings, and believed in the importance of considering the biosynthesis and biochemistry of the active principles. It is because of this that he is credited with setting the stage for modern pharmacognosy, with its emphasis on bioactive natural products and drug discovery. He was instrumental in the formation of the ASP, and in 1960, he took on the editorship of Lloydia (which did not became officially affiliated with the ASP until 1961), and served as editor for seventeen years, during which time the journal underwent many changes, including the change from a quarterly to a bi-monthly publication. He was the recipient of numerous honors and awards including the American Pharmaceutical Association Foundation Research Achievement Award in 1964; the UConn. Alumni Association Award for Faculty Excellence (1965); and the Centennial Achievement Award from Ohio State Univ. (1970).
Jack Beal
Originally from Kansas, Jack Beal joined The Ohio State University (OSU) as a graduate student in 1950 under the supervision of the then Dean, Bernard V. Christensen. Following his graduation in 1952, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the College of Pharmacy that same year. His main research interests focused on isoquinoline-type alkaloids of the genus Thalictrum and their biological activities. Dr. Beal’s collaborations with Raymond W. Doskotch and Popat N. Patil led to numerous articles on the constituents of Thalictrum, describing more than 175 alkaloids, 80 of which were novel. In a career that spanned over 40 years, Dr. Beal served as the advisor for 15 doctoral and 12 master’s level students, of whom many pursued positions in active research and teaching. Dr. Beal was a founding member of ASP and he served as its third president. Dr. Beal contributed remarkably to the Society through his tenure as Editor-in-Chief of J. Nat. Prod. (Lloydia) (1977-1983), during which time the journal changed its name and was established as a forum for high-quality publications on natural products research. Dr. Beal was the recipient of many awards, among them the Research Achievement Award in Natural Products Chemistry from the American Pharmaceutical Association Foundation in 1982 and Honorary Membership of ASP. He was designated as “Distinguished Economic Botanist” in 1989 by the Society of Economic Botany. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the College of Pharmacy at OSU, where he also served as Assistant Dean and co-founded the Pharmacy Alumni Association, the “Jack L. Beal Professorship and Endowed Chair” was established for a prominent natural products chemist and pharmacognosist.
A. Douglas Kinghorn
Internationally recognized for his work on the isolation, characterization and biological evaluation of bioactive natural products from higher plants, Dr. Kinghorn's research has advanced the discovery of potential anticancer agents, antimicrobials, cancer chemopreventive compounds and taste-modifying substances, as well as the scientific study of botanical dietary supplements.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Kinghorn has authored or co-authored more than 600 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and edited or co-edited over 45 scientific volumes, making him one of the most prolific scholars in natural products research. His work has been supported by more than $35 million in research funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and private industry since 1980.
Dr. Kinghorn also played a pivotal leadership role in scientific publishing as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Natural Products from 1994 to 2019, helping to shape the journal as a co-publication of the American Chemical Society and the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) into a leading international forum for natural products chemistry and biology. In addition, he has served as president of both the ASP and the Society for Economic Botany and has received numerous lifetime achievement honors, including the Norman R. Farnsworth Research Achievement Award from ASP and the Egon Stahl Award in Gold from GA (Society of Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research; Darmstadt, Germany) for his contributions to natural products science.
Schwarting & Beal Awards Details
In 2001, the Foundation Board of the American Society of Pharmacognosy began a new initiative as a result of the Arthur E. Schwarting and Jack L. Beal Awards for best papers in the Journal of Natural Products. In this manner, two former distinguished editors of the journal are fondly remembered.
Kinghorn Award Details
In 2026, The Journal of Natural Products announced a new annual award honoring A. Douglas Kinghorn, BS Pharm, PhD, DSc, FRPharmS, Distinguished University Professor and Jack L. Beal Chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at the College of Pharmacy and a global leader in natural products research.
The A. Douglas Kinghorn Award for Best Perspective or Review recognizes scholarship that defines and anticipates emerging scientific trends.
The award underscores Dr. Kinghorn’s enduring legacy as a scientist, mentor and editor whose career has helped define the modern natural products community.
Schwarting, Beal & Kinghorn Awards Directions
Eligibility
The Schwarting Award is open to all papers published in the journal within a given year (either in print or electronically).
The Beal Award is awarded to younger investigators [i.e., persons within 12 years of receiving their Ph.D. degree or within 10 years of gaining their first professional appointment (e.g., Assistant Professor or equivalent position in industry or government)].
The Kinghorn Award is open to all papers published in the journal within a given year (either in print or electronically).
Selection
A two-tier process is used to determine the winners for papers published in the Journal of Natural Products every year.
The journal editors nominate eight papers for the Schwarting Award and four papers for the Beal Award,
The Schwarting, Beal & Kinghorn Awards Committee will make the final selections.
Application Process
Papers submitted to the Journal of Natural Products every year are considered by the journal editors, to be submitted to the Schwarting, Beal & Kinghorn Awards Committee.
Schwarting, Beal & Kinghorn Awards Committee
2025-2026 - Chair: Emily Mevers
Nadja Cech
Kerry McPhail
Emily Mevers
