2024 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize Winner
Dr Yuval Elani, Imperial College London
Awarded for innovative contributions in synthetic cell engineering and biohybrid systems.
Dr Elani’s research group is exploring whether it’s possible to design and build synthetic biological cells in the lab and whether those cells can be programmed as micro-robots. Potential uses of these micro-robots include targeted drug delivery within the body, chemical manufacturing, novel material production, and environmental monitoring.
Cells are the building blocks of life, honed over billions of years of evolution to execute some of the most intricate chemical tasks known. Despite their complexity, they consist of a complex network of interacting molecules. It may, therefore, be possible to build artificial cells from scratch, essentially creating life from non-living materials. Achieving this could lead to groundbreaking applications aimed at tackling major societal issues, revolutionise our understanding of biology by building a ‘new’ biology, and shed light on the philosophical question of what it means for something to be alive.
2024 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize Winner
Dr Sarah Lovelock, The University of Manchester
Awarded for the development of innovative biocatalytic approaches to produce therapeutic oligonucleotides.
Therapeutic oligonucleotides are a new class of RNA-based molecules that have the potential to treat a wide range of diseases. However, the rapidly growing number of therapies approved and in advanced clinical trials is placing unprecedented demands on our capacity to manufacture oligonucleotides at scale.
Biocatalysis is an exciting technology that is widely used across the chemical industry: this is where enzymes are used to convert starting materials into high-value products.
Dr Lovelock’s group is developing biocatalytic approaches to produce therapeutic oligonucleotides in a more sustainable and scalable way. One strategy they have developed produces complex oligonucleotide sequences in a single operation using polymerases and endonucleases (nature’s enzymes). These enzymes work together to amplify complementary sequences embedded within a catalytic template. The group is working in partnership with industry to translate their approaches into manufacturing processes.
2024 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize Winner
Dr Felice Torrisi, Imperial College London
Awarded for innovative contributions to the understanding of charge transport in networks of two-dimensional materials for the development of printed electronics.
Dr Torrisi’s work reveals the physical mechanisms responsible for the transport of electricity in printed two-dimensional (2D) materials. Understanding how charges move in printed 2D materials enables the design and optimisation of new electronic devices in emerging fields, like wearable electronics, electronic textiles, point-of-care diagnostics and quantum computing. His team has revealed that electronic components, sensors and integrated circuits can be printed from 2D material inks on any substrates, including plastics to textiles, paving the way to a new generation of high-performance devices.
| Year | Name | Institution | Citation |
| 2023 | Professor Anna Slater MRSC | University of Liverpool | Awarded for the development of innovative tools, particularly flow chemistry processes, to control the formation of supramolecular materials. |
| 2023 | 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. |
| 2023 | Dr James Dawson MRSC | Newcastle University | Awarded for outstanding contributions to the understanding and modelling of ion transport and interfaces in energy materials. |
| 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.