About this award
The Roger Parsons Medal is awarded to an independent early career electrochemist working in the UK or Ireland in recognition of their contributions to any field of electrochemistry. These contributions should be recognized internationally, and should strengthen the standing of UK and Irish electrochemistry.
The award celebrates the life and work of Roger Parsons, FRS (1926–2017). Roger was a well-known electrochemist who made a significant impact on the electrochemical community from the early 1950s through to the mid-1990s. He also served as the editor of the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry and Interfacial Electrochemistry for nearly forty years. Roger was especially supportive of early career researchers, helping many to establish independent research programmes. It is therefore a fitting tribute to Roger’s influence that this medal is named in his honour. Initially, the award will be made on biennial basis, with the first award being made in 2019.
The winner of the Roger Parsons medal will be invited to give a plenary lecture (at which they will be presented with their medal) at the annual Electrochem meeting, normally held in the UK or Ireland in September. The winner’s accommodation and registration fees for Electrochem are covered as part of the award.
The selection process for this award will be carried out by members of the RSC Electrochemistry Group committee (see below). In particular, the awards committee will look for strong evidence of independent research since the candidate’s PhD/postdoc, with this independent research making a strong contribution towards advancing the understanding and/or applications of the electrochemical sciences. Nominations where a candidate has taken the scope of his/her research beyond the traditional boundaries of electrochemistry, or has moved to electrochemistry from another discipline are especially encouraged.
Roger Parsons Medalists
- 2021 - Max García-Melchor
- 2019 - Alison Parkin
Find out more about the nomination and selection process
Nominations for the Roger Parsons Medal normally open in October/November of the year before the award is made. Nominations are now closed but when announced, should be made to the Electrochemistry Group committee Secretary.
Each nomination should consist only of the following document. No other documentation will be considered:
A single pdf file of no more than three A4 pages (minimum single-line spacing, Arial 11pt), which contains:
- A CV for the nominated candidate (including the date of award of the candidate’s PhD and details of any career breaks)
- A section describing the nominee’s three most significant contributions to the scientific literature. The importance of these three highlighted contributions should be explained, and the nominee’s role in these outputs and their novelty and originality made explicit. The awards committee will attach particular merit to evidence of independent research contributions and evidence that the nominee has the potential to become a leader in the field.
In addition to the three A4 page statements, and only in exceptional circumstances, nominators may submit further supporting information. This could, for example, be an appropriate statement by a senior co-author concerning the contribution of the candidate to a multi-author paper. Such supporting information is limited to two pages of A4 and should be submitted as part of a single PDF file. The committee reserve the right to disregard this supporting information should its necessity not be made explicit.
- The candidate should be an independent academic or early career researcher working in the UK/Ireland who is within 12 years of receiving their PhD at the submission deadline (extended as appropriate for those who have taken career breaks, e.g. parental leave). Nominators wishing to receive an extension for career breaks for their nominees should justify this clearly in the supplied CV.
- Self-nominations are not permitted.
- The nominator must be a member of the RSC.
- The nominee can be of any nationality but must be based in the UK or Ireland at the time of both nomination and award.
- Current members of the Electrochemistry Group committee may not act as nominators for this award.
- Current members of the Electrochemistry Group committee are not eligible for this award. Similarly, anyone who has been a member of the electrochemistry group committee during the two years prior to the consideration of the award is also ineligible.
The committee reserves the right to reject any submissions that do not adhere to the guidelines above.
The selection process is carried out by committee members of RSC Electrochemistry Group. This awards committee will consist of the committee chair, secretary, treasurer and at least two other members of the Electrochemistry Group committee.
The winner of the award is normally announced in late February.