2023 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize Winner
Dr James Dawson, Newcastle University
Awarded for outstanding contributions to the understanding and modelling of ion transport and interfaces in energy materials.
The need for improved energy materials is one of the most pressing scientific challenges we face. Governments worldwide are investing heavily in renewable energy technologies in their efforts to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The Dawson group employs computational modelling to improve the fundamental understanding and performance of materials for energy storage, conversion and generation technologies, including batteries, fuel cells and solar cells. Such improvements are critical for developing the next-generation devices required for our current and future energy demands.
2023 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize Winner
Dr Alexandra Gibbs, University of St Andrews
Awarded for unravelling how structure drives functionality to aid the discovery and understanding of quantum and functional materials.
Dr Gibbs’ work focuses on making new materials with unusual magnetic and electronic properties. These properties are always intimately linked to the crystal structure and chemical makeup of the compound. Understanding these links gives fundamental insight into the endless and fascinating complexity of materials.
The compounds which Dr Gibbs’ group studies are typically at the very 'blue sky' stage of research, but underlying considerations are driven by societal challenges requiring new, non-toxic and sustainable functional and quantum materials for future technologies. The group are always investigating how they can control and tune these new electronic and magnetic states such that one day they might be relevant for devices and contribute to future technologies.
2023 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize Winner
Professor Anna Slater, University of Liverpool
Awarded for the development of innovative tools, particularly flow chemistry processes, to control the formation of supramolecular materials.
New, sustainable materials are needed to address global challenges in energy use, healthcare, and more. But making new chemicals and materials can be challenging: discovery takes time and resources. And even when a new molecule or material is discovered, it can be difficult to make it on a large scale in a sustainable, reproducible way.
Professor Slater’s group develop techniques, such as flow chemistry, to make discovery more efficient and chemistry reaction processes more reliable, sustainable, and scalable. As a result, the time it takes to get materials out of the lab and into wider use is shortened. The groups also works with industry to use these techniques for existing processes, aiming to reduce waste and energy usage, and improve efficiency.
| Year | Name | Institution | Citation |
| 2022 | Professor Volker Deringer | University of Oxford | Awarded for innovative contributions to the modelling and understanding of amorphous materials. |
| 2022 | Dr Marina Freitag | Newcastle University | Awarded for outstanding work to develop, elaborate, and understand novel energy materials. |
| 2022 | Dr Paul McGonigal MRSC | Durham University | Awarded for innovative studies of dynamic processes in organic functional materials. |
| 2021 | Dr Nicholas Chilton | The University of Manchester | Awarded for contributions in applying experimental and advanced computational methods to understand the magnetic and electronic properties of molecules. |
| 2021 | Professor Fernanda Duarte | University of Oxford | Awarded for introducing multidisciplinary approaches to rationalise complex (bio)chemical reaction mechanisms, guiding rational molecular design. |
| 2021 | Dr Ceri Hammond | Imperial College London | Awarded for the development of traditional and sustainable catalytic processes using heterogeneous catalysts. |
| 2020 | Dr Thomas Bennett | University of Cambridge | Awarded for contributions to the non-crystalline metal–organic framework domain, including synthesis and characterization of the first liquid and glass MOF states. |
| 2020 | Dr Anthony Green | University of Manchester | Awarded for the design and evolution of enzymes using an expanded genetic code. |
| 2020 | Dr Sihai Yang | University of Manchester | Awarded for pioneering applications of X-ray and neutron scattering techniques to porous materials science and catalysis. |
| 2019 | Dr Rebecca Melen | Cardiff University | Awarded for outstanding contributions to the advancements in main-group Lewis acid mediated transformations. |
| 2019 | Dr Robert Phipps | University of Cambridge | Awarded for inventive research on the application of non-covalent catalysis to selectivity in synthetic organic chemistry. |
| 2019 | Dr Matthew Powner | University College London | Awarded for pioneering investigations into prebiotic synthesis, which illuminate key conceptual steps in the origin of life. |
| 2018 | Dr Kim Jelfs | Imperial College London | Awarded for an innovative approach to the computer-guided discovery of supramolecular and porous materials. |
| 2018 | Dr Daniele Leonori | The University of Manchester | Awarded for the development of broadly applicable photochemical C-N bond forming processes involving nitrogen-radicals. |
| 2018 | Dr David Mills | The University of Manchester | Awarded for ground-breaking contributions to the chemistry and magnetic properties of f-element compounds. |
| 2017 | Dr Matthew Baker | University of Strathclyde | Awarded for novel analytical methodologies for the detection and characterisation of molecules within complex matrices and their application towards human health and security. |
| 2017 | Dr Mark Crimmin | Imperial College London | Awarded for his research in the area of organometallic and main group chemistry, particularly for developing new types of heterobimetallic complexes. |
| 2017 |
Dr Elaine O'Reilly | The University of Nottingham | Awarded for her development of methodology that expands and simplifies biocatalytic amine synthesis. |
| 2016 |
Dr Gonçalo Bernardes | University of Cambridge | Awarded for the development of novel chemoselective reactions for the modification of biomolecules and their use to understand and influence human disease. |
| 2016 |
Professor Susan Perkin | University of Oxford | Awarded for her contributions towards understanding the structure and behaviour of liquids in thin films. |
| 2016 |
Dr Sarah Staniland | The University of Sheffield | Awarded for her understanding and exploitation of biomineralisation to produce next-generation magnetic nanoparticles via biomimetic syntheses. |
| 2015 |
Dr Adrian Chaplin | University of Warwick | Awarded for contributions to the fundamental organometallic chemistry of small molecule activation reactions. |
| 2015 |
Professor Robert Paton | University of Oxford | Awarded for his pioneering work in using computation to understand reactivity and selectivity in organic and bio-organic chemistry allowing rational design in synthesis. |
| 2015 |
Dr David Scanlon | University College London | Awarded for his development and application of computational techniques to understanding and predicting the properties of functional semi-conductors for energy applications. |
| 2014 |
Dr Matthew Fuchter | Imperial College London | Awarded for his contribution to the study of epigenetic processes in disease and his insights into chiral aromatic compounds, particularly those with helical chirality. |
| 2014 |
Dr David Glowacki | University of Bristol | Awarded for his theoretical work on energy transfer processes in chemical reaction dynamics. |
| 2014 |
Dr Erwin Reisner | University of Cambridge | Awarded for his work in combining molecular synthesis, chemical biology and materials chemistry to develop artificial photosynthesis. |
| 2013 |
Dr Andrew Baldwin | University of Oxford | Awarded for his contributions to understanding the quaternary dynamics that govern sizes of oligomeric protein assemblies, through NMR, mass spectroscopy (MS) and electron microscopy (EM). |
| 2013 |
Dr John Bower | University of Bristol | Awarded for his development of a wide range of novel transition metal catalysed processes of fundamental utility in organic synthesis. |
| 2013 |
Dr Aron Walsh | University of Bath | Awarded for contributions to the development and application of computational chemistry for the study of functional materials, in particular to the design of novel compounds for solar energy conversion. |
| 2012 |
Dr Michael Ingleson | University of Manchester | Awarded for his innovative work in borocation chemistry, particularly the borylation of arenes. |
| 2012 |
Dr Tuomas Knowles | University of Cambridge | Awarded for his development and application of an ensemble of methods by which to break down complex assembly pathways into their underlying molecular steps, thereby allowing such processes to be understood and controlled on a molecular level. |
| 2012 |
Dr Marina Kuimova | Imperial College London | Awarded for her pioneering studies in the spectroscopy and imaging of biological materials, as exemplified by her development and application of fluorescent molecular rotomers to measure cellular viscosity. |
| 2011 |
Craig Banks | Manchester Metropolitan University | Awarded for his contributions to the understanding of carbon materials, in particular graphene and its application as an electrode material. |
| 2011 |
Tomislav Friscic | Cambridge University | Awarded for his work in developing solid-state methodologies which explore and combine new types of molecular self-assembly. |
| 2011 |
Philipp Kukura | University of Oxford | Awarded for his outstanding and original contributions to the development of ultrafast and single molecule spectroscopy. |
| 2010 |
Scott Dalgarno | Heriot-Watt University | Awarded for recognition of his work on the synthesis of new nanostructures based on calixarenes with remarkable magnetic and adsorption properties. |
| 2010 |
Andrew Goodwin | University of Oxford | Awarded for his pioneering work in materials with negative thermal expansion, and in the field of total scattering methods. |
| 2010 |
Nathan S Lawrence | Schlumberger Cambridge Research | Awarded for research originality and innovation in the field of applied analytical electrochemistry. |
| 2009 |
Petra Cameron | University of Bath | Awarded for her pioneering research on solar cells. |
| 2009 |
Eva Hevia | University of Strathclyde | Awarded for her outstanding, original and innovative contributions to the synthetic and structural chemistry of the alkali metals and the development of new multimetallic methods for selective metallations. |
| 2009 |
Oren Scherman | University of Cambridge | Awarded for his work on supramolecular polymers, in particular in aqueous environments. |
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.