The Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prizes are awarded for the most meritorious and promising original investigations in chemistry and published results of those investigations.
- Run annually
- Up to three prizes are available
- Winners receive £5000, a medal and a certificate
- Winners will complete UK lecture tours
- Winners are selected by the RSC Prize Committee
- Nominees should be an early career scientist, typically with no more than 10 years of full-time equivalent professional experience (see below for full details)
2023 Winners
2023 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize Winner
Dr James Dawson, Newcastle University
For outstanding contributions to the understanding and modelling of ion transport and interfaces in energy materials.
2023 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize Winner
Dr Alexandra Gibbs, University of St Andrews
For unravelling how structure drives functionality to aid the discovery and understanding of quantum and functional materials.
2023 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize Winner
Professor Anna Slater, University of Liverpool
For the development of innovative tools, particularly flow chemistry processes, to control the formation of supramolecular materials.
Guidelines for nominators
- Nominations open 18 October.
- Nominations close 18 January, 17:00 GMT.
- Reference deadline 25 January, 17:00 GMT.
- Only RSC members can nominate for this prize.
- Nominees may NOT nominate themselves.
- We will not consider nominations of deceased individuals.
- 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, be nominated or provide a reference:
- RSC Subject Community Presidents
- RSC Prize Committee members
- Trustees of the Royal Society of Chemistry
- Royal Society of Chemistry staff
- This prize is open to nominees working in the UK and Ireland only.
- 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 (see below).
- Career breaks will be taken into consideration, 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.
- Nominees should only be nominated once for this prize in any given prize cycle. In cases where we receive more than one nomination for the same nominee, only one nomination will go forward to judging.
- Starting from the 2023 cycle, unsuccessful nominations for this prize will automatically rollover to the next prize cycle, unless the nominee’s circumstances have changed so as to make them ineligible, in relation to the eligibility criteria for the prize as outlined above. We encourage nominators to update their nomination between cycles when the nomination window is open. Nominations will be considered for two consecutive prize cycles.
To make a nomination, please use our online nominations system to submit the following information:
- Your name, contact details, and membership number (please contact the RSC Membership team if you do not know your membership details). Your RSC membership must be confirmed at the point of nomination – it is not sufficient to have a membership application in process. The identity of nominators is not made known to our judging panels. The RSC reserves the right to amend nominations if necessary to ensure the anonymity of the nominator.
- 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.
- Brief details (up to 150 words) of your nominee’s professional experience, in relation to the career stage-related eligibility criteria detailed above. Please include details of any career breaks or periods of absence that you feel that the judging committee should consider.
- 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. As committee members will carry out their initial assessments without full details of relevant publications, please ensure this supporting statement clearly sets out how the scientific content of supporting publications addresses the selection criteria. Our guidance for nominators page has more information on writing this supporting statement.
- 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 one referee. The referee might be the nominee's post-doc or PhD supervisor, line manager, project manager or mentor.
- The reference 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.
- All references must be submitted through the online system by the reference deadline, 25 January, 17:00 GMT. Nominations will not go forward to judging without a completed reference. Please ensure you submit your referee's details in plenty of time, to allow them sufficient opportunity to provide their reference.
- As soon you submit your referee’s details, they will receive an automated e-mail with a link to submit their reference. Please contact awards@rsc.org as soon as possible if you experience any issues with this.
- It is the nominator’s responsibility to ensure that the referee is aware of the nomination, that they should expect an e-mail invitation to submit their reference, and that they are aware of what is required to ensure that the reference is submitted before the deadline.
- All referees will receive one e-mail reminder from RSC staff in the week before the reference deadline.
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 on the overall quality of relevant contributions and achievements by nominees, in relation to the selection criteria listed below.
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/referee
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
RSC Prize Committee
- Sabine Flitsch, University of Manchester (Chair)
- Diane Turner, Anthias Consulting
- Mark Bradley, University of Edinburgh
- Mike Ward, University of Warwick
- Dudley Shallcross, University of Bristol
- Stephen Mudge, Norwegian Institute for Air Research
- Dwayne Heard, University of Leeds
- Magda Titirici, Imperial College London
- David O'Hagan, University of St Andrews
- Paul Brewer, National Physical Laboratory
History of the prize
The Edward Harrison Memorial Prize and the Meldola Medal and Prize merged to form the Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prizes in 2008.
The Meldola Prize, a gift of the Society of Maccabaeans, recognised the significant contributions to science of one of its former presidents, Raphael Meldola. Born in 1849, he went on to become an industrial chemist, inventing the oxazine dye Meldola's Blue. He was Professor of Chemistry at the City and Guilds Technical College in Finsbury for 20 years, publishing over 250 papers and reports during this time.
His scientific interests extended from organic chemistry to entomology, under the mentorship of Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, and astronomy, leading the British Eclipse Expedition to the Nicobar Islands, India in 1875. Meldola was president of a number of prestigious chemical societies: the Chemical Society (1905-07), the Society of Chemical Industry (1907-09), and the Institute of Chemistry (1912-15).
The Edward Harrison Memorial Prize was established in 1922 through donations from friends and colleagues to commemorate the contributions of Lt-Col Edward Harrison to chemistry. In 2021, the purposes of this Trust were amended, and remaining monies were combined with other generous bequests and donations to become part of the RSC Recognition Fund.
Having qualified as a pharmaceutical chemist, Harrison attempted to enlist in the army during the First World War, but was unsuccessful. However, with the introduction of gas weapons there was a need for chemists like Harrison to devise a method of defence against this new form of arms.
Harrison became the Deputy Controller of the Chemical Warfare Department and produced the first serviceable British gas mask. He continuously worked on this during the war until he died of pneumonia. His contributions have hugely impacted the lives of many in the armed forces.
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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