The American Chemical Society Breakthroughs Award The Chemistry Department at the University of California, Irvine is the recipient of the 2006 Chemical Breakthroughs Award from the American Chemical Societys (ACS) Division of the History of Chemistry. This award, in its inaugural year, is honoring the departments or institutions that have nurtured the top ten breakthrough discoveries in chemistry over the past 100 years. UC Irvines Chemistry Department is being recognized for the article published in the 1974 issue of Nature, by F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina.