Organic Industrial Chemistry Award 2009 winner

Nicholas Turner
University of Manchester

Awarded for his chemo-enzymatic approach to enantiomerically pure amino acids and amines, and its commercialisation via the start-up company Ingenza.

About the winner

Nick Turner obtained his DPhil in 1985 with Professor Sir Jack Baldwin and from 1985-1987 was a Royal Society Junior Research Fellow, spending time at Harvard University with Professor George Whitesides. He was appointed lecturer in 1987 at Exeter University and moved to Edinburgh in 1995, initially as a Reader and subsequently Professor in 1998.

In October 2004 he joined Manchester University as Professor of Chemical Biology where his research group is located in the Manchester Interdisicplinary Biocentre.

He is Director of the Centre of Excellence in Biocatalysis (CoEBio3) and also a co-founder and Scientific Director of Ingenza, a spin-out biocatalysis company based in Edinburgh. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Chemical Communications.

His research interests are in the area of biocatalysis with particular emphasis on the discovery and development of novel enzyme catalysed reactions for applications in organic synthesis. His group are also interested in the application of directed evolution technologies for the development of biocatalysts with tailored functions.