As a kid, Jay Switzer made everything from fireworks to tear gas in his parents' Ohio basement. Today, he is just as intriqued by experimentation and discovery. In October, the American Chemical Society will honor his work with it's Midwest Award.

Switzer, the Donald L. Castleman Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Missouri-Rolla and a senior investigator in the UMR Materials Research Center, is known for his research into the chirality, or "handedness," of drugs. Most important drugs on the market today are chiral -- they exist as either right-handed or left-handed molecules. While one "hand" is useful as a drug, the other can be toxic.

Last summer, Switzer began a project to determine if a chemical used by water districts to disinfect the water supply (monochloramine) actually raised lead levels in the water -- it does.