Nominations for the 2025 NPR Emerging Investigator Lectureship are now open until 14 October 2024.
This Lectureship celebrates outstanding early career researchers who have made significant contributions to a natural product related area of the chemical sciences in their independent research careers.
- It is presented annually
- The nominations are shortlisted, and the winner is selected by a judging panel made up of the Natural Product Reports Editorial Board
- The recipient of this lectureship receives the opportunity to present at a relevant high-profile international meeting with a contribution of up to £500 to cover associated costs
Our latest Lectureship winner 2024
Professor Neha Garg
Neha Garg is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech broadly interested in understanding how small molecules shape microbial composition in complex environments. Garg obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2013 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Professors Wilfred A. van der Donk and Satish K. Nair. Neha's dissertation work in Illinois was recognized by the Anne A Johnson Work Award and the Catherine Connor Outstanding Dissertation in Biotechnology Award. She then worked with Professor Pieter C. Dorrestein as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of California, San Diego where she developed metabolomics methods to visualize microbial communities.
At Georgia Tech, Garg was awarded the NSF CAREER award, R35 MIRA award, and Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development award to develop –omics methods for investigating natural products-mediated chemical communication between host and microbe as well as mucus-associated probiotic and pathogenic microbes. Her work has been recognized by the ACS Organic Division with the Academic Young Investigator Award. She has also received several teaching awards at Georgia Tech including the Center for Teaching and Learning Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award and the Vasser Woolley Award for Excellence in Instruction. In her research, Garg develops and applies interdisciplinary approaches in chemical microbiology, molecular biology, microscopy, mass spectrometry, and genomics to unveil the role of microbial, host, and chemical environments in the production of small molecule natural products.
See all previous winners
Guidelines for nominators and candidates
Find out who is eligible for this lectureship, about the nomination process and see who is on the selection panel.
Nomination deadline
14 October 2024
Lectureship winner announcement
Early 2025
The Natural Products Reports Emerging Investigator Lectureship is awarded through a process whereby nominations of candidates are invited from our community.
Open to all researchers globally
The NPR Lectureship is open to all researchers throughout the world. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and researchers in academia or industry.
As part of the Royal Society of Chemistry, we believe we have a responsibility to promote inclusivity and accessibility to improve diversity. Where possible, we encourage each nominator to consider nominating candidates of all genders, races, and backgrounds. Please see the RSC's approach to Inclusion and Diversity.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the NPR Lectureship, the candidate must:
- Be an active natural products researcher, either in academia or industry, carrying out research that is within scope of the journal
- Be an independent researcher (this includes Research Associates or Fellows who run their own research group; PhD students and postdocs are not eligible)
- Be at an early stage of their independent career (this should typically be within 12 years of completing their PhD, but appropriate consideration will be given to those who have taken a career break, followed a different career path or work in systems where their time period to independence may vary). Please contact the Editorial Office if you have any queries
Nominations can be made by anyone and must be sent via email to the Editorial Office by 14 October 2024. Self-nominations are not permitted. All nominators will be asked to confirm that, to the best of their knowledge, their nominee’s professional standing is such that there is no confirmed or potential impediment to them receiving the Lectureship.
To nominate a candidate, please provide:
- The name, affiliation, website URL and contact details of the nominee
- An up-to-date nominee CV (three pages maximum)
- A letter of recommendation (500-word limit) addressing the following assessment criteria:
- Scientific quality of research output
- Innovation
- Community and advocacy activities
- Additional indicators of esteem may be included for consideration by the judging panel
- Statements as to why a nominee is eligible if they are beyond twelve years of their PhD completion, for instance, due to career breaks, will not count towards this word limit
- Contact details for a confirmed supporting referee
Please inform your referee of the nomination that the Editorial Office will request a supporting letter of recommendation (500-word limit) once the nomination has been received, where the referee should comment in detail on specific contributions, achievements and potential. Referees must state their relationship with the nominee e.g. this could be the nominee’s postdoc or PhD supervisor, line manager, project manager or academic mentor.
All eligible nominated candidates will be assessed by a judging panel made up of the Natural Product Reports Editorial Board.
The judging panel will consider the following core criteria:
- Scientific quality of research output
- Innovation
- Community and advocacy activities
Additional indicators of esteem will be considered by the judging panel where multiple nominees are judged equally meritorious in relation to these core criteria.
Previous winners
2023: Christine Beemelmanns, Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences Saarland, Germany
2022: Jinghan Gui, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, China
2021: Hans Renata, Scripps Research Institute, USA
2020: Alison Narayan, University of Michigan, USA
2019: Mo Seyedsayamdost, Princeton University, USA
2018: Konrad Tiefenbacher, University of Basel, Switzerland
2017: Katherine Ryan, University of British Columbia, Canada
2016: Ryan Shenvi, Scripps Research Institute, USA
2015: Seth Herzon, Yale University, USA
2014: Emily Balskus, Harvard University, USA
2013: Rebecca Goss, University of St Andrews, UK
See all our lectureships
Contact NPR Editorial Office
- Email:
- the team