Chemistry of Transition Metals Current winner

Distinguished for his innovative synthesis of multimetal assemblies and for his demonstration of their applications in photophysics, optics and electrochromism.  Among them are assemblies containing both d- and f-block metals with remarkable ability to sensitise lanthanide emission.

About the winner

Mike Ward received his BA and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge where his interests in the coordination and supramolecular chemistry of transition metals were kindled during his PhD with Ed Constable.

After a post-doctoral year with Jean-Pierre Sauvage in Strasbourg, he was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Bristol in 1990.  He remained in Bristol for 13 years, during which time he developed a long-lasting collaboration with Jon McCleverty, and moved to the chair of inorganic chemistry at the University of Sheffield in 2003.

His research interests encompass all aspects of coordination chemistry, including self-assembly and host-guest chemistry of polyhedral cage complexes; redox, optical and spectroelectrochemical properties of metal complexes and their supramolecular assemblies, in particular d-block metal-polypyridine complexes and near-infrared luminescence from lanthanides.

Mike has published around 250 primary papers and 30 review articles.  He is involved in many RSC activities including the editorial board of Dalton Transactions (2003-2005), the international advisory board of New Journal of Chemistry, Dalton council and the Science and Technology board.

Previous awards include the RSC's Corday-Morgan medal in 1999 and the Sir Edward Frankland Fellowship for 2000-01.