Materials Chemistry open prize: de Gennes Prize

Key Information

Deadlines

• Nominations open 15 October.
• Nominations close 14 January, 17:00 GMT.

Eligibility

Individuals named in any of the following roles during the nomination and judging period are not eligible to nominate or be nominated:

• Materials Chemistry Prize Committee members
• RSC Subject Community Presidents
• RSC Prize Committee members
• Trustees of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• Royal Society of Chemistry staff 

Nominators:

• Only RSC members can nominate for this prize.
• Nominees may NOT nominate themselves.

Nominees:

• The prize is open to nominees based in the UK or internationally.
• There are no career stage restrictions associated with this prize.
• Nominees can only be considered for one of our Research & Innovation Prizes in any given year. In a case where a nominee is nominated for more than one prize independently, RSC staff will ask the nominee which prize they would like to be considered for.
• We will not consider nominations of deceased individuals.
• We particularly encourage nominations of disabled people, those who work part-time, or whose career has spanned a break for any reason – for example, a period of parental or adoption leave, caring responsibilities, long-term illness, family commitments, or other circumstances. We understand that these can impact a nominee’s career in different ways, and encourage nominators to use the space provided on the nomination form to explain the nature and impact of the nominees’ individual circumstances (see 'Guidelines for Nominators' for further details).
  • Please do not hesitate to contact the team at awards@rsc.org should you have any questions about the above.

Guidelines for nominators

General information

• When nominating previous RSC prize winners, please remember that a person cannot be awarded twice for substantially the same body of work.
• Nominees should only be nominated once for this prize in any given prize cycle. In cases where we receive more than one nomination for the same nominee, only one nomination will go forward to judging.
• Since 2023, we have been trialling a process where all unsuccessful nominations will automatically rollover once, to be considered for the next round of the prize, unless the nominee's circumstances have changed to make them ineligible. This means that:
  • All nominations submitted for the first time for the 2023 prize will be considered for the 2025 prize. We strongly encourage nominators to update their nomination between cycles when the nomination window is open.
    The RSC Prize Committee will review the outcomes from the trial in July 2025.

Submitting your nomination

Please use our online nominations system to submit the following information:

• Your name, contact details, and RSC membership number (please contact the RSC Membership team if you do not know your membership details).Your RSC membership must be confirmed at the point of nomination – it is not sufficient to have a membership application in process. The identity of nominators is not made known to our judging panels. The RSC reserves the right to amend nominations if necessary to ensure the anonymity of the nominator.
• Your nominee's name and contact details.
• An up to date CV for the nominee (no longer than one A4 side, 11pt text) which should include a summary of their education and career, and a maximum of 5 relevant publications or patents.
• Any information related to career breaks taken by your nominee - for example, a period of parental or adoption leave, caring responsibilities, long-term illness, family commitments, as well as any other circumstances including long-term conditions or disabilities. We understand that these can impact a nominee's career in different ways, and encourage nominators to use the space provided on the noination form to explain the nature and impact of the nominee's individual circumstances. This information will be shared with the committee, but before doing so RSC staff will always seek consent from the nominee in cases where special category data is mentioned. 
• A short citation describing what the nominee should be awarded for. This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence.
• A supporting statement (up to 750 words) addressing the selection criteria. Our guidance for nominators page has more information on writing this supporting statement.
• A statement (up to 100 words) describing how your nominee has contributed more broadly to the scientific community. A list of possible examples is outlined in the ‘selection criteria’ tab.
• References are not required for this prize and will not be accepted.

The RSC reserves the right to rescind any prize if there are reasonable grounds to do so. All nominators will be asked to confirm that to the best of their knowledge there is no impediment, relating to professional conduct, to their nominee receiving this prize. All prize winners will be asked to sign the RSC’s Code of Conduct Declaration for Recognition. 

Selection Criteria and Judging Panel

Our selection committees base their evaluations on the overall quality of relevant contributions and achievements by nominees, in relation to the selection criteria listed below.

The scientific content of any supporting publications, as described in the supporting statement, is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it is published.

The selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations for this prize:

• Originality of research
• Impact of research
• Quality of publications and/or patents and/or software
• Innovation
• Professional standing
• Collaborations and teamwork
• Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator 

In an instance where multiple nominees are judged equally meritorious in relation to the above criteria, judging panels have the flexibility to use information provided by the nominator on the nominee’s broader contribution to the chemistry community as an additional criterion.

Examples of relevant contributions could include, but are not limited to:

• Involvement with Royal Society of Chemistry member groups/networks
• Teaching/demonstrating
• Effective mentorship
• Service on boards, committees or panels
• Leadership in the scientific community
• Peer-reviewer
• Promotion of diversity and inclusion
• Advocacy for chemistry
• Public engagement and outreach

Materials Chemistry Prize Committee

• Neil Robertson, University of Edinburgh (Chair)
• David Amabilino, Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona
• Lucy Clark, University of Birmingham
• Ross Hatton, University of Warwick
• Sohini Kar-Narayan, University of Cambridge
• Fiona Meldrum, University of Leeds
• Alberto Saiani, University of Manchester

History of the prize

Established in 2008, the de Gennes Prize, formerly the Prize for Materials Chemistry, honours the work of Nobel laureate Pierre-Gilles de Gennes.

Born in Paris in 1932 de Gennes went on to become a research engineer at the Atomic Energy Centre, Saclay, where he received his PhD in magnetism in 1957. After completing his postdoctoral training in California he returned to France as an assistant professor at the University of Paris in Orsay. During this time he completed highly influential work in the area of surface superconductivity and wrote the classic book Superconductivity of metals and alloys.

His later research interests included liquid crystals, polymer physics, and the physical chemistry of adhesion. He even went on to his investigate the dynamics of wetting to help improve the growing of grapes for wine, demonstrating his keen sense of humour as applied to his work.

In 1991 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for "discovering that methods for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalised to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers". His peers considered him to be one of 'the giants in physics and a beacon to the field of liquid crystals'.

After receiving this accolade, de Gennes shared his enthusiasm for his subject and visited an impressive 200 schools between 1992 and 1994.

From 2020, as part of a series of changes following an independent review of the Royal Society of Chemistry's recognition programmes, this prize (odd years) will alternate with the John B Goodenough Award (even years).