Stephen J. Lippard is the winner of the 2014 American Chemical Society Priestley Medal, the highest honor given by ACS. Lippard helped create the field of bioinorganic chemistry, which explores the crucial role of metals in biology. His work also led to a better understanding of the mechanism of cisplatin — sometimes termed "the penicillin of cancer" for its wide-ranging effects — and opened the door to efforts to develop more effective anti-cancer medications.