Chemists knighted in New Year's Honours
Congratulations to the members of our community who have been recognised in Her Majesty the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list.
Our chief executive, Dr Robert Parker, said: "While I add my congratulations to all who are deservedly being commended this year, I want to pay tribute to two people in particular, thanking Sir Simon Campbell and Sir Martyn Poliakoff for their years of service to the chemical sciences.
"Simon is a former president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, an internationally-renowned synthetic organic chemist and has championed excellence in drug discovery from the UK.
"He has given exceptional service to our global initiative to raise the profile of the contribution of chemistry to the health and wellbeing of citizens in the UK and worldwide.
"Through Simon’s leadership, the Campaign for Chemistry reinvigorated chemistry education in the UK and raised the profile of this issue through partnerships with institutions in China, India, South Africa, Japan and Brazil.
"He continues to represent the UK chemical sciences community internationally through consulting and advisory roles with a number of companies across the world.
"Martyn has emerged as a global leader in the field of green and sustainable chemistry, was recently elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry by our council and is also Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society.
"He has given strong support to our efforts internationally, particularly in Africa and Russia, and his passion and enthusiasm on the difference chemistry can make to people’s lives has been infectious, inspiring generations of chemists and chemical engineers all over the world.
"As well as being the author of over 300 peer-reviewed papers and having his work recognised with honours and awards, Martyn’s work in engaging the public with chemistry has been acclaimed internationally, most notably through the hugely popular Periodic Table videos that have been viewed online by millions of people all around the world."
