Professor Catherine Murphy FRSC

Winner: 2022 Centenary Prize

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

For pioneering work on the growth, size and shape control, biological applications and environmental implications of gold nanocrystals, and for excellence in communication.

Celebrate Professor Catherine Murphy

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So many problems in society have a technical solution rooted in chemistry: sustainable energy, food security, clean water, personalised medicine.

At the nanoscale, gold and silver exhibit brilliant shape-dependent optical properties that enable applications in chemical sensing, biological imaging, optical displays, energy conversion devices, mechanically improved polymer nanocomposites, and even photothermal therapy for removal of pathogenic cells.

The use of gold in so many technology sectors is, in part, due to Professor Murphy’s work. Since 2001, her lab has developed the seed-mediated growth method to synthesise these nanomaterials and has extensively studied their formation mechanisms, kinetics and surface chemistry. The seed-mediated growth approach is now widely adopted by the nanomaterials community as a way to control crystal growth on the nanoscale.

Read winner biography

Catherine J Murphy is the Larry R Faulkner Endowed Chair in Chemistry and current Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She has pioneered the colloidal synthesis of shape-controlled gold and silver nanoparticles in aqueous solution.

Professor Murphy earned two BS degrees from UIUC in 1986, one in chemistry and one in biochemistry. She did her undergraduate research in the laboratory of T B Rauchfuss, and then earned her PhD in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, under the direction of A B Ellis in 1990. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech (1990–1993), she began her independent career at the University of South Carolina in 1993. After rising through the ranks at South Carolina, she was recruited back to UIUC in 2009.

Her awards include the 2020 ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry, the 2019 Remsen Award, the 2019 Linus Pauling Medal, the 2019 MRS Medal, the 2013 Carol Tyler Award of the International Precious Metals Institute, the 2011 ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry’s Inorganic Nanoscience Award. She has been named a Nanotech Briefs Nano 50 Innovator (2008), a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar (1998), an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow (1997), a Cottrell Scholar of the Research Corporation (1996) and an NSF CAREER Award winner (1995). She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the Materials Research Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Professor Murphy was ranked 32 in Thomson Reuters Sciencewatch List of Top 100 Chemists for the Decade 2000-2010 and 10 on their list of Top 100 Materials Scientists of the Decade 2000–2010. In 2015, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and, in 2019, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Q+A

How did you first become interested in chemistry?

I was always interested in understanding the natural world, even as a child. I wondered if milk was a pure liquid or whether it was a mixture of things in water, at about age 8. In later schooling, physics seemed boring, biology was messy, and chemistry was just right.

Who or what has inspired you?

My middle school chemistry teacher, Mr Fry, my high school chemistry teacher, Mr Lindemann, my freshman university instructor, Dr Zumdahl, and my research mentors Tom Rauchfuss, Art Ellis and Jackie Barton. I also am blessed to be part of a large network of chemists who love science, including my special ‘nano women’!

What motivates you?

Having cool new science happen in the lab that no one has done before.

What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?

Take more statistics and data analytics courses!

Why is chemistry important?

So many problems in society have a technical solution rooted in chemistry: sustainable energy, food security, clean water, personalised medicine.

What does good research culture look like/mean to you?

A good research culture is one where everyone can bring their full selves to the table, and are not afraid to point out the weaknesses in an argument or in the data; we all learn together.

How are the chemical sciences making the world a better place?

Reducing the global carbon footprint is a goal for many large enterprises; this fundamentally requires new chemical solutions.

Why do you think teamwork is important in science?

By refining the ideas and data with the input of multiple people, the science is recrystallised into something more pure, beautiful, and powerful.