The Beilby Medal and Prize recognises work of exceptional practical significance in chemical engineering, applied materials science, energy efficiency or a related field.
- Run annually
- The winner receives £1000, a medal and a certificate
- The prize is administered in rotation by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
- The 2023 Beilby Medal and Prize is administered by SCI. Please visit the SCI website for more information.
2021 Winner
2021 Beilby Medal and Prize Winner
Dr Pola Goldberg Oppenheimer, University of Birmingham and Institute of Healthcare Technologies
For unconventional lithographic structuring of applied materials and advanced nanoplatforms for optical spectroscopy.
Guidelines for nominators
- Nominations open 18 October
- Nominations close 18 January, 17:00 GMT.
- Reference deadline 25 January, 17:00 GMT.
- Both RSC members and non-members can nominate for this prize
- Nominees are permitted to nominate themselves
- Nominees can only be considered for one of our Research & Innovation Prizes in any given year. In a case where a nominee is nominated for more than one prize independently, RSC staff will ask the nominee which prize they would like to be considered for.
- Individuals named in any of the following roles during the nomination and judging period are not eligible to nominate or be nominated:
- Materials Chemistry Prize Committee members
- RSC Subject Community Presidents
- RSC Prize Committee members
- Trustees of the Royal Society of Chemistry
- The award is open to nominees based in the UK or internationally
- Nominees should be an early career scientist, typically with no more than 10 years of full-time equivalent professional experience
- This should be experience gained as part of a scientific career excluding time spent in full-time education. Time spent as a postgraduate student should not be included e.g. Masters, PhD. Time spent as a post-doctoral researcher should be included
- Nominators will be asked to provide details of the nominee's professional experience, in relation to the above criteria
- Career breaks will be recognised, and applications are particularly encouraged from those whose career has spanned a break due to caring responsibilities or personal circumstances e.g. a period of parental/adoption leave, family commitments, illness, or other exceptional circumstances
- When nominating previous RSC Prize winners, please remember that a person cannot be awarded twice for substantially the same body of work
To make a nomination, please use our online nominations system to submit the following information:
- Your name and contact details
- Your nominee's name and contact details
- An up to date CV for the nominee (no longer than one A4 side, 11pt text) which should include a summary of their education and career, and a maximum of 5 relevant publications or patents
- A short citation describing what the nominee should be awarded for. This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence
- A supporting statement (up to 750 words) addressing the selection criteria
- A statement (up to 100 words) describing how your nominee has contributed more broadly to the scientific community. A list of possible examples is outlined in the ‘selection criteria’ tab.
- The name and contact details of two referees. Please inform your referees of the nomination; the system will contact them as soon as their details are submitted. The referees can be the nominee's post-doc or PhD supervisor, line manager, project manager or mentor
- References should be a maximum of 750 words. Referees will be asked to state their relationship (if any) with the nominee and note any conflicts of interest
- References must be submitted through the online system by the nomination deadline, 18 January, 17:00 GMT. Nominations will not go forward to judging without two completed references. Please ensure you submit your referee's details on the system well in advance of this deadline, to allow them sufficient opportunity to provide their reference
The RSC reserves the right to rescind any prize if there are reasonable grounds to do so. All nominators will be asked to confirm that to the best of their knowledge there is no impediment, relating to professional conduct, to their nominee receiving this prize. All prize winners will be asked to sign the RSC’s Code of Conduct Declaration for Recognition.
Make a nominationSelection Criteria and Judging Panel
Our selection committees base their evaluations primarily on the overall quality of relevant contributions made by nominees and not on quantitative measures. The scientific content of any supporting publications, as described in the supporting statement, is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it is published.
The selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations for this prize:
- Originality of research
- Impact of research
- Quality of publications and/or patents and/or software
- Innovation
- Professional standing
- Independence
- Collaborations and teamwork
- Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator/referees
In an instance where multiple nominees are judged equally meritorious in relation to the above criteria, judging panels have the flexibility to use information provided by the nominator on the nominee’s broader contribution to the chemistry community as an additional criterion.
Examples of relevant contributions could include, but are not limited to:
- Involvement with Royal Society of Chemistry member groups/networks
- Teaching/demonstrating
- Effective mentorship
- Service on boards, committees or panels
- Leadership in the scientific community
- Peer-reviewer
- Promotion of diversity and inclusion
- Advocacy for chemistry
- Public engagement and outreach
The prize will be judged by representatives from IOM3, SCI and the RSC (Materials Chemistry Division Prize Committee)
Materials Chemistry Prize Committee
- Magda Titirici, Imperial College London (Chair)
- David Amabilino, Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona
- Marina Freitag, Newcastle University
- Sohini Kar-Narayan, University of Cambridge
- Fiona Meldrum, University of Leeds
- Alberto Saiani, Univerisyt of Manchester
History of the prize
The Beilby Medal and Prize, awarded by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Society of Chemical Industry and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, is a memorial to Sir George Thomas Beilby, President of all three bodies, or their predecessors. Founded after his death in 1924, the first recipients of the Beilby Medal in 1930 were Guy Dunstan Bengough and Ulick Richardson Evans.
Beilby was born in 1850 and studied at Edinburgh University. He went on to join the Oakbank Oil Company in 1869, where he began to tackle problems of poor fuel economy. In collaboration with William Young, he improved the yield of oil and ammonia from shale by improving the fractional distillation process. Through his work in this field, Beilby was asked to contribute to the Royal Commission on Coal Supplies in 1903, and later was elected as Chairman of the newly established Fuel Research Board in 1917. He built the Fuel Research Station in East Greenwich to study different coals and problems such as low temperature carbonisation.
As well as contributing substantially to improving fuel economy, Beilby was also director of the Cassel Cyanide Company and Caster-Kellner Alkali Company, patented an improved method for producing hydrogen cyanide and made contributions to the field of metallurgy.
His contributions led to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1906, a knighthood in 1916, and the receipt of several honorary degrees.
Re-thinking recognition: Science prizes for the modern world
This report is the result of an independent review of our recognition programmes. Our aim in commissioning this review was to ensure that our recognition portfolio continues to deliver the maximum impact for chemical scientists, chemistry and society.
Prizes
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