2022 Tilden Prize Winner
Professor Timothy Donohoe, University of Oxford
Awarded for innovative development of catalytic methods that activate organic molecules by redox processes.
Professor Donohoe’s work concentrates on making carbon-carbon bonds, which provide the skeleton or framework of a vast array of molecules. Some of these have fascinating and useful properties (for use in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, dyes, and polymers for example).
By harnessing the unique reactivity of a metal catalyst, his research group has been able to uncover some new and powerful ways of making C-C bonds which will allow synthetic chemists to access new compounds and explore their properties. These new methods of synthesis have a promising future in chemical synthesis due to their high efficiency and lack of toxic by-products.
2022 Tilden Prize Winner
Professor Christopher Hardacre, The University of Manchester
Awarded for outstanding contributions to the areas of liquid and gas phase heterogeneous catalysis.
Professor Hardacre’s group focuses on the use of solids as catalysts for the production of commodity and fine chemicals and the removal of pollutants. Catalysts are materials that can lower the energy required for chemical reactions to proceed at the required rate. The group uses them in both the liquid phase and gas phase. The research aims to produce chemicals and fuels more efficiently and selectively. As well as having a direct application in the chemicals and energy sector, catalysis is key to achieving net zero.
2022 Tilden Prize Winner
Professor David K Smith, University of York
Awarded for pioneering an understanding of molecular materials based on supramolecular gels.
Gels are fascinating materials that surround us in everyday life, from hair gel to Jelly Babies. However, while the gels used in everyday life are typically made of polymers, Professor Smith is instead interested in ‘supramolecular gels’ which reversibly assemble from small molecules. Such gels are highly tunable and can be programmed by molecular engineering to carry out unique functions.
In recent years, Professor Smith has developed a new family of hydrogels and demonstrated their potential for high-tech applications. These gels are based on very simple low-cost building blocks, and scalable syntheses, demonstrating that supramolecular chemistry can approach realistic commercial goals.
One of his gels is designed to extract and accumulate precious metals from waste water with the resulting metal-loaded gels then having further applications of their own, including antibacterial activity (silver), nano-electronics (gold) or catalysis (palladium). His research team has also developed drug delivery gels, including a system for nasal drug delivery that can achieve enhanced uptake into the brain to potentially treat conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease.
Inspired by his own husband’s health problems with cystic fibrosis and organ transplantation, leading to his untimely death, Professor Smith has created hydrogels capable of supporting cell growth. By combining multiple components, the Smith group has created innovative ways of shaping and patterning such gels in order to direct and control cell growth. Such gels have potential future use in growing organs from a patient’s own stem cells, which could give rise to organs ‘on-demand’ and avoid problems with transplant rejection.
| Year | Name | Institution | Citation |
| 2021 | Professor Jonathan Reid | University of Bristol | Awarded for pioneering studies of the chemical and physical properties of micron-scale aerosol particles, and their impact in atmospheric, health, analytical and formulation sciences. |
| 2021 | Professor Jonathan Steed | Durham University | Awarded for work in the understanding, control and application of the assembly of molecular materials in the crystal and gel state. |
| 2021 | Professor Charlotte Williams | University of Oxford | Awarded for contributions to sustainable polymer chemistry. |
| 2020 | Professor Stephen Liddle | University of Manchester | Awarded for extensive contributions to understanding the inorganic and organometallic chemistry of the f elements. |
| 2020 | Professor Christiane Timmel | University of Oxford | Awarded for seminal contributions to the fields of spin chemistry and electron paramagnetic resonance. |
| 2020 | Professor Jianliang Xiao | University of Liverpool | Awarded for outstanding contributions to catalysis, both in fundamental studies and commercial application. |
| 2019 | Professor Eric McInnes | The University of Manchester | Awarded for seminal contributions to the electron paramagnetic spectroscopy of transition metal compounds. |
| 2019 | Professor Russell Morris | University of St. Andrews | Awarded for outstanding contributions to the synthesis, characterisation and application of framework solids. |
| 2019 | Professor James Naismith | The Rosalind Franklin Institute & University of Oxford | Awarded for career-long breakthroughs in structural and chemical dissection of natural product biosynthesis. |
| 2018 | Professor Euan Brechin | The University of Edinburgh | Awarded for the development of magnetostructural correlations in transition metal coordination complexes. |
| 2018 | Professor Jonathan Clayden | University of Bristol | Awarded for work in the field of molecular conformation, and the development of new reactivity using areas and their congeners. |
| 2018 | Professor Simon Duckett | University of York | Awarded for increasing the sensitivity of NMR spectroscopy through the inventions of the SABRE and SABRE-relay methods |
| 2017 | Professor Jas Pal Badyal | Durham University | Awarded for the functionalization of solid surfaces through the development of high selectivity nonisothermal plasmachemical reactions. |
| 2017 | Professor Lucy Carpenter | University of York | Awarded for her research on the atmospheric chemistry and ocean-air emissions of reactive halogens. |
| 2017 | Professor Neil McKeown | The University of Edinburgh | Awarded for his innovations relating to microporous materials based on soluble polymers and discrete molecules. |
| 2016 | Professor Véronique Gouverneur | University of Oxford | Awarded for her interdisciplinary work in the area of organofluorine chemistry and radiochemistry, and the impact of her discoveries in medicine. |
| 2016 | Professor Dermot O'Hare | University of Oxford | Awarded for his creative work on the synthesis, reactivity and advanced characterisation of molecular inorganic compounds and materials spanning organometallic chemistry to framework and layered materials. |
| 2016 | Professor Ivan Parkin | University College London | Awarded for the development and applications of films in light activated anti-microbial surfaces; self-cleaning glass; solid state oxide gas sensors and the formation of rugged superhydrophobic surfaces. |
| 2015 | Professor Mark Bradley | University of Edinburgh | Awarded for his extensive interdisciplinary work in the area of chemical biology, with a specific focus on the control and manipulation of stem cells. |
| 2015 | Professor Leroy Cronin | University of Glasgow | Awarded for his work on the synthesis and understanding of the self-assembly, electronic structure and nanotechnology device applications of polyoxometalate architectures. |
| 2015 | Professor David Wales | University of Cambridge | Awarded for the development of methods to elucidate potential energy landscapes and their role in dynamics and thermodynamics, with a particular emphasis on self-organisation. |
| 2014 | Professor Andrew Cooper | University of Liverpool | Awarded for his contribution to the study of porous organic cages. |
| 2014 | Professor Guy Lloyd-Jones | University of Edinburgh | Awarded for his work in understanding the mechanisms of many organometallic-catalysed reactions and their extensive applications to organic synthesis. |
| 2014 | Professor Iain McCulloch | Imperial College London | Awarded for his research on semiconducting aromatic polymers for organic electronic and solar cell applications, especially his development of methods for controlling the organisation of such polymers in the liquid crystalline phase. |
| 2013 | Professor Steven Armes | University of Sheffield | Awarded for his seminal studies in dispersion polymerisation, including polymerisation- induced self-assembly. |
| 2013 | Professor Eleanor Campbell | University of Edinburgh | Awarded for her highly significant, ground-breaking contributions in the chemistry and nanoscience of fullerene and atomic cluster dynamical properties, femtosecond laser ablation and carbon nanotubes. |
| 2013 | Professor Steven Nolan | University of St Andrews | Awarded for outstanding work using late transition metal systems for catalysis, including his groundbreaking contributions on ruthenium, palladium and gold catalysis. |
| 2012 | Professor Harry Anderson | University of Oxford | Awarded for creating supramolecular materials and molecular wires with unprecedented physical and biological properties, including conjugated porphyrin oligomers, encapsulated p-systems, nanorings and two-photon absorbing dyes. |
| 2012 | Professor James Durrant | Imperial College London | Awarded for his world-leading contributions to the function and design of molecular and nanostructured materials for solar energy conversion including both dye-sensitized photovoltaics and photo-electrodes for solar-driven fuel synthesis. |
| 2012 | Professor Patrick Unwin | University of Warwick | Awarded for the development of interfacial flux imaging, enabling quantitative visualisation of interfacial processes with high spatial and temporal resolution, and impact that spans electro-catalysis, crystal growth and physiological processes. |
| 2011 | Jeremy Hutson | University of Durham | Awarded for his pioneering studies of the formation and properties of ultracold molecules, particularly the novel molecular collisions that occur in the fully quantum-mechanical regime below 1 millikelvin. |
| 2011 | John Sutherland | MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology | Awarded for his outstanding contributions to understanding the Origins of Life through your seminal synthesis of activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides under potentially prebiotic conditions. |
| 2011 | Richard Winpenny | University of Manchester | Awarded for his major contributions to the synthesis, analysis and physics of magnetic clusters, rings and assemblies. |
| 2010 | Duncan Bruce | University of York | Awarded in recognition of his mastery of synthetic and organisational principles for the creation of materials with collective properties, including transition metal containing liquid crystals, metallosurfactants and halogen bonded liquid crystals. |
| 2010 | David Leigh | University of Edinburgh | Awarded for his major contributions to hydrogen-bonded and metal-directed reactions, and in particular for the design, fabrication and operation of molecular machines. |
| 2010 | Kosmas Prassides | Durham University | Awarded for his seminal research contributions to mixed valency chemistry, to the understanding of electronic phenomena in solids and to condensed matter fullerene science. |
| 2009/2010 | Philip Bartlett | University of Southampton | Awarded for his original and broad contributions to electrochemistry and chemical sensors. |
| 2009/2010 | Peter Bruce | University of St Andrews | Awarded for his achievements in the field of ionically conducting solids. This relates in particular to his work with lithium battery materials based both on polymers and on solid-state oxides, the former work being underpinned by his development of methods for solving crystal structures in the absence of single crystals. |
| 2009/2010 | Philip Page | University of East Anglia | Awarded for his distinguished contributions to asymmetric synthesis and catalysis, in particular iminium salt-catalysed epoxidation.
Professor Page delivered his lecture at the Catalysis in Synthesis Symposium at the University of Birmingham on 11 November 2009. |
| 2009 | Christopher Hunter | University of Sheffield | Awarded for his studies on the role of molecular recognition in chemistry and biology. |
| 2009 | Andrew Orr-Ewing | University of Bristol | Awarded for his contributions to chemical reaction dynamics. |
| 2009 | Ian Paterson | University of Cambridge | Awarded for his outstanding achievements in the total synthesis of complex natural products. |
| 2008/2009 | V K Aggarwal | ||
| 2008/2009 | C D Bain | ||
| 2008/2009 | I Manners | ||
| 2007/2008 | Professor Kenneth D M Harris | Cardiff University | Distinguished for his important contributions to the physical chemistry of solids, through his pioneering work on new techniques for structure determination from powder X-ray diffraction data and his contribution to understanding fundamental properties. |
| 2007/2008 | Professor David E Logan | University of Oxford | Distinguished for his international leadership in the development of new theoretical ideas relevant to outside problems in solid-state chemistry and physics. |
| 2007/2008 | Professor Nigel S Simpkins | University of Nottingham | Distinguished for his major contributions to the methodology of organic asymmetric synthesis, and especially for his novel and timely development of enantioselective reactions involving chiral lithium amides. |
| 2006/2007 | Professor David O'Hagan | University of St Andrews | Distinguished for his outstanding contributions to biosynthesis, in particular of organofluorine compounds and his identification of the first fluorinase enzyme. |
| 2006/2007 | Professor John M C Plane | University of Leeds | Distinguished for his outstanding contributions to our understanding of the chemistry of the troposphere and mesosphere through field measurements, laboratory experiments and theory. |
| 2006/2007 | Professor Matt J Rosseinsky | University of Liverpool | Distinguished for his outstanding contributions spanning synthetic solid state chemistry and materials chemistry, in particular, his work on superconducting derivatives of fulleranes and colossal magneto-resistance, in situ methods for ceramics and nanoporous materials and for his development of a hydride anion reduction method for the synthesis of solid state materials, often with metals in unusual oxidation states, including the discovery of the first metal oxide hydride. |
| 2005/2006 | Professor Peter D Beer | University of Oxford | Distinguished for his design and synthesis of molecular frameworks that selectively sense and signal the binding of cationic and anionic species. |
| 2005/2006 | Professor Richard G Compton | University of Oxford | Distinguished for his quantitative investigations of the kinetics and mechanisms of reactions and solid/liquid interfaces. |
| 2005/2006 | Professor David W Knight | Cardiff University | Distinguished for his innovative contributions to heterocyclic chemistry, pericyclic processes and natural product synthesis. |
| 2004/2005 | Professor Patrick W Fowler | University of Exeter | Distinguished for his original and important contributions in theoretical chemistry, including definitive work on the fullerenes, on the structures and properties of weakly-bound clusters and on the optical properties of ions in crystals. |
| 2004/2005 | Professor Tim C Gallagher | University of Bristol | Distinguished for his research in stereocontrolled organic synthesis, carbohydrate chemistry and heterocyclic chemistry. |
| 2004/2005 | Professor Vernon C Gibson | Imperial College London | Distinguished for his development of novel coordination and organometallic chemistry of the transition metals, including the introduction of several new and potent catalysts. |
| 2003/2004 | Professor Andrew B Holmes | University of Cambridge | Distinguished for his imaginative natural product synthetic studies, particularly in the areas of medium size marine ethers and lactones and biologically active alkaloids, and his pioneering research in the field of light emitting polymers. |
| 2003/2004 | Professor David Parker | Durham University | Distinguished for his innovative work on the design, synthesis and applications of tailored molecules, metal complexes and conjugates. |
| 2003/2004 | Professor Steve K Scott | University of Leeds | Distinguished for his outstanding work, both experimental and theoretical, on chemical instabilities: oscillations, chaos and waves in chemical systems. |
| 2002/2003 | Professor Anthony P Davis | University of Bristol | Distinguished for his outstanding contributions to organic synthesis and supramolecular chemistry. |
| 2002/2003 | Professor John W Goodby | University of Hull | Distinguished for his seminal contributions to the chemistry and physics of liquid crystals, including the principles of fast-switching ferroelectric and antiferroelectric materials in liquid crystal displays, and for elucidating the biological role of liquid crystals in carbohydrates and glycolipids. |
| 2002/2003 | Professor Peter A Tasker | University of Edinburgh | Distinguished for his contributions to coordination chemistry through ligand design and supramolecular chemistry, and for his contributions to industrial applications, particularly metal recovery and recycling. |
| 2001/2002 | Professor Lynn F Gladden | University of Cambridge | Distinguished for her outstanding work in developing techniques, especially those involving magnetic resonance visualisation at high spatial resolution, for interpreting and predicting the behavious of multi-component and multi-phase systems confined within porous media, which have already had a profound impact on chemical engineering. |
| 2001/2002 | Professor Martin Schröder | University of Nottingham | Distinguished for his contributions to the general area of coordination chemistry, particularly with regard to macrocyclic ligands and their application as models for metallobiosites and metallomesogens, and for his studies of molecular architecture involving metallopolymers, networks and interpenetrating systems. |
| 2001/2002 | Professor Tom J Simpson | University of Bristol | Distinguished for his contribution to bio-organic chemistry, particularly for his studies of the biosynthesis of polyketides. |
| 2000/2001 | Professor David J Cole-Hamilton | University of St Andrews | Distinguished for his seminal and extensive contributions to mainstream synthetic inorganic chemistry and for his application of organometallic compounds to catalysis and metal atom deposition. |
| 2000/2001 | Professor Chris J Moody | University of Exeter | Distinguished for his development of useful synthetic reactions based on rhodium carbenoid-mediated cyclisations. |
| 2000/2001 | Professor Klaus Müller-Dethlefs | University of York | Distinguished for his pioneering development of the ZEKE method in molecular spectroscopy. |
| 1999/2000 | J N L Connor | ||
| 1999/2000 | A G Orpen | ||
| 1999/2000 | R J K Taylor | ||
| 1998/1999 | Professor F Geoff N Cloke | University of Sussex | Distinguished for his highly original contributions to organometallic and coordination chemistry, particularly of d- and f-block metals, ingeniously exploiting metal vapour synthetic methods and generating novel products with unusual electronic and magnetic properties. |
| 1998/1999 | Professor Dominic J Tildesley | University of Southampton | Distinguished for his contributions to the field of molecular simulation. |
| 1998/1999 | Professor William B Motherwell | University College London | Distinguished for his original contributions in developing new reagents and new reactions for organic synthesis, particularly those involving free radical intermediates and organometallic reagents. |
| 1997/1998 | D C Clary | ||
| 1997/1998 | S G Davies | ||
| 1997/1998 | D E Fenton | ||
| 1996/1997 | M N R Ashfold | ||
| 1996/1997 | W J Feast | ||
| 1996/1997 | D W H Rankin | ||
| 1995/1996 | J K Burdett | ||
| 1995/1996 | A J Stace | ||
| 1995/1996 | E J Thomas | ||
| 1994/1995 | A G M Barrett | ||
| 1994/1995 | R J Donovan | ||
| 1994/1995 | J Evans | ||
| 1993/1994 | P P Edwards | ||
| 1993/1994 | P A Madden | ||
| 1993/1994 | D W Young | ||
| 1992/1993 | S A R Knox | ||
| 1992/1993 | P J Kocienski | ||
| 1992/1993 | R N Perutz | ||
| 1991/1992 | G R Fleming | ||
| 1991/1992 | J F Nixon | ||
| 1991/1992 | G Pattenden | ||
| 1990/1991 | J M Brown | ||
| 1990/1991 | M Poliakoff | ||
| 1990/1991 | R K Thomas | ||
| 1989/1990 | A C Legon | ||
| 1989/1990 | D M P Mingos | ||
| 1989/1990 | J Staunton | ||
| 1988/1989 | B F G Johnson | ||
| 1988/1989 | D A King | ||
| 1988/1989 | S V Ley | ||
| 1987/1988 | D Husain | ||
| 1987/1988 | A J Kirby | ||
| 1987/1988 | K Wade | ||
| 1986/1987 | M S Child | ||
| 1986/1987 | B T Heaton | ||
| 1986/1987 | R Ramage | ||
| 1985/1986 | C D Garner | ||
| 1985/1986 | R E Grigg | ||
| 1985/1986 | J H Pritchard | ||
| 1984/1985 | D T Clark | ||
| 1984/1985 | I O Sutherland | ||
| 1984/1985 | A G Sykes | ||
| 1983/1984 | R J H Clark | ||
| 1983/1984 | I W M Smith | ||
| 1983/1984 | D H Williams | ||
| 1982/1983 | C R Ganellin | ||
| 1982/1983 | M L H Green | ||
| 1982/1983 | J P Simons | ||
| 1981/1982 | H W Kroto | ||
| 1981/1982 | J A McCleverty | ||
| 1981/1982 | A Pelter | ||
| 1980/1981 | E W Abel | ||
| 1980/1981 | I Fleming | ||
| 1980/1981 | R Grice | ||
| 1979/1980 | W J Albery | ||
| 1979/1980 | J E Baldwin | ||
| 1979/1980 | P M Maitlis | ||
| 1978/1979 | J K Sutherland | ||
| 1978/1979 | J J Turner | ||
| 1977/1978 | N B H Jonathan | ||
| 1977/1978 | K H Overton | ||
| 1976/1977 | R O C Norman | ||
| 1976/1977 | M W Roberts | ||
| 1975/1976 | A R Katritzky | ||
| 1975/1976 | J W White | ||
| 1974/1975 | G W Kirby | ||
| 1974/1975 | B L Shaw | ||
| 1973/1974 | C W Rees | ||
| 1973/1974 | J M Thomas | ||
| 1972/1973 | A Carrington | ||
| 1972/1973 | M F Lappert | ||
| 1971/1972 | J I G Cadogan | ||
| 1971/1972 | F G A Stone | ||
| 1970/1971 | L Crombie | ||
| 1970/1971 | R Mason | ||
| 1969/1970 | W D Ollis | ||
| 1969/1970 | R J P Williams | ||
| 1968/1969 | R N Haszeldine | ||
| 1968/1969 | D W Turner | ||
| 1967/1968 | R C Cookson | ||
| 1967/1968 | J Lewis | ||
| 1966/1967 | N N Greenwood | ||
| 1966/1967 | B C L Weedon | ||
| 1965/1966 | B A Thrush | ||
| 1965/1966 | M C Whiting | ||
| 1964/1965 | A D Buckingham | ||
| 1964/1965 | F Sondheimer | ||
| 1963/1964 | V M Clark | ||
| 1963/1964 | A F Trotman-Dickenson | ||
| 1962/1963 | A R Battersby | ||
| 1962/1963 | R E Richards | ||
| 1961/1962 | J Chatt | ||
| 1961/1962 | H B Henbest | ||
| 1960/1961 | R S Nyholm | ||
| 1960/1961 | R A Raphael | ||
| 1959/1960 | C Kemball | ||
| 1959/1960 | P L Pauson | ||
| 1958/1959 | J Baddiley | ||
| 1958/1959 | G Porter | ||
| 1957/1958 | R M Barrer | ||
| 1957/1958 | B Lythgoe | ||
| 1956/1957 | E A R Braude | ||
| 1956/1957 | G Gee | ||
| 1955/1956 | D H Everett | ||
| 1955/1956 | G W Kenner | ||
| 1954/1955 | M J S Dewar | ||
| 1954/1955 | H C Longuet-Higgins | ||
| 1953/1954 | J S Anderson | ||
| 1953/1954 | A W Johnson | ||
| 1952/1953 | D H R Barton | ||
| 1952/1953 | H M Powell | ||
| 1951/1952 | C A Coulson | ||
| 1951/1952 | D H Hey | ||
| 1950/1951 | F S Dainton | ||
| 1950/1951 | F L Rose | ||
| 1949/1950 | M G Evans | ||
| 1949/1950 | F S Spring | ||
| 1948/1949 | C E H Bawn | ||
| 1948/1949 | F E King | ||
| 1947/1948 | E G Cox | ||
| 1947/1948 | E R H Jones | ||
| 1946/1947 | A E Alexander | ||
| 1946/1947 | M Stacey | ||
| 1945/1946 | E D Hughes | ||
| 1945/1946 | W A Waters | ||
| 1944/1945 | W Baker | ||
| 1944/1945 | J M Robertson | ||
| 1943/1944 | F G Mann | ||
| 1943/1944 | H W Thompson | ||
| 1942/1943 | R P Bell | ||
| 1942/1943 | J M Gullard | ||
| 1941/1942 | H J Emeleus | ||
| 1941/1942 | R D Haworth | ||
| 1940/1941 | H W Melville | ||
| 1940/1941 | A R Todd | ||
| 1939/1940 | E L Hirst | ||
| 1939/1940 | L E Sutton |
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.