2022 Faraday Division open award: Faraday Lectureship Prize Winner
Professor Michael Wasielewski, Northwestern University
Awarded for contributions toward understanding electron spin dynamics in molecular systems for applications in quantum information science.
Quantum information science (QIS) promises breathtaking advances in computing, sensing applications and communications. These advances depend on harnessing the unique properties of matter on the atomic scale. For example, Professor Wasielewski’s research focuses on electrons within molecules that have a property called spin. When observing the spin of an electron, only one of two possible values result, much like the on-off switches (bits) representing 0 or 1 in today’s computers. But when electrons are not observed, many of them (quantum bits or qubits) can interact to utilise any value between 0 and 1, therefore greatly expanding their ability to carry out computations.
The Wasielewski research group also focuses on connecting these systems on the molecular length scale without losing the important quantum properties of the resulting system. Molecular synthesis affords the opportunity to build novel molecular materials for QIS from the bottom up.
| Year | Name | Institution | Citation |
| 2021 | Professor Laura Gagliardi | University of Chicago | Awarded for contributions to the development of multireference quantum chemical approaches to describe catalysis and excited state phenomena. |
| 2020 | Professor Richard Catlow | University College London and Cardiff University | Awarded for the development and application of computational methods in conjunction with experiment as powerful and predictive tools in the physical chemistry of solids. |
| 2018 | Professor Graham Hutchings | Cardiff University | Awarded for seminal investigations of heterogeneous catalysis by gold and gold containing nanomaterials. |
| 2016 | Professor Graham Fleming | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley | Awarded for experimental and theoretical achievements that have redefined the study and understanding of fundamental chemical and photobiological processes in liquids, solutions and proteins. |
| 2014 | Professor Michel Che | Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6 & Institut Universitaire de France | Awarded for pioneering a molecular approach to catalyst design by bridging the gap between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis through the new field of interfacial coordination chemistry. |
| 2012 |
Professor Richard Saykally | University of California, Berkeley | Awarded for the development of powerful new spectroscopic technology and its application in pioneering studies of molecular ions, water clusters, liquid water and aqueous solutions and their surfaces. |
| 2010 |
John Polanyi | University of Toronto | Awarded for his seminal contributions in advancing understanding of molecular reaction dynamics in the gas phase and at the gas-surface interface. |
| 2007 | Professor Gerhard Ertl | Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft | Awarded for his significant advances in surface science and nano-catalysis, and especially for his signal contributions to our understanding of catalytic mechanisms. |
| 2004 | Professor Alexander Pines | University of California, Berkeley | Awarded for his many profound theoretical and experimental contributions to nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, through which NMR has become a powerful analytical tool for materials of many kinds. |
| 2001 | Professor Richard N Zare | Stanford University | Awarded for his seminal applications of laser techniques to a very wide range of chemical problems and profound insights into the dynamics of molecular interactions. |
| 1998 | Professor A David Buckingham | University of Cambridge | |
| 1995 | Professor William Klemperer | Harvard University | |
| 1992 | Yuan T Lee | Academia Sinica, Taiwan | |
| 1989 | John Meurig Thomas | The Royal Institution | |
| 1986 | Professor Alan Carrington | University of Oxford | |
| 1983 | Professor John S Rowlinson | University of Oxford | |
| 1980 | Sir George Porter | The Royal Institution | |
| 1977 | Manfred Eigen | Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry | |
| 1974 | Sir Frederick Dainton | University of Oxford | |
| 1970 | Gerhard Herzberg | National Research Council of Canada | |
| 1968 | Charles A Coulson | University of Oxford | |
| 1965 | Ronald G W Norrish | University of Cambridge | |
| 1961 | Sir Christopher Ingold | University College London | |
| 1958 | Leopold Ruzicka | ||
| 1956 | Otto Hahn | ||
| 1953 | Sir Cyril Hinshelwood | University of Oxford | |
| 1950 | George C de Hevesy | University of Ghent | |
| 1947 | Sir Robert Robinson | University of Oxford | |
| 1939 | Irving Langmuir | General Electric | |
| 1936 | Lord Ernest Rutherford of Nelson | University of Cambridge | |
| 1933 | Professor Peter Debye | University of Leipzig | |
| 1930 | Professor Niels Bohr | Copenhagen University | |
| 1927 | Richard Willstaetter | University of Munich | |
| 1924 | Robert A Millikan | California Institute of Technology | |
| 1914 | Svante A Arrhenius | Nobel Institute for Physical Research, Stockholm | |
| 1911 | Theodore W Richards | Harvard University | |
| 1907 | Hermann Emil Fischer | University of Berlin | |
| 1904 | Wilhelm Ostwald | University of Leipzig | |
| 1895 | John Strutt, Lord Rayleigh | The Royal Institution | |
| 1889 | Dmitri I Mendeleev | Saint Petersburg University | |
| 1881 | Hermann F L von Helmholtz | University of Berlin | |
| 1879 | Charles-Adolphe Wurtz | University of Paris | |
| 1875 | August W von Hofmann | University of Berlin | |
| 1872 | Stanislao Cannizzaro | ||
| 1869 | Jean-Baptiste A Dumas |
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.