2010 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists

IUPAC Announces Winners of the 2010 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) today announced the winners of the 2010 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists awarded for the best PhD theses in the chemical sciences as described in 1000-word essays. The five Winners are:

Guangbin Dong, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Viktoria Gessner, Technical University Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
Rafal Klajn, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
Jason Spruell, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
Guihua Yu, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

The winners will each receive a cash prize of USD 1000 and travel expenses to the 43rd IUPAC Congress, 30 July - 7 August 2011, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Each prizewinner will also be invited to present a poster at the IUPAC Congress describing his/her award winning work and to submit a short critical review on aspects of their research topics to be published in Pure and Applied Chemistry. The awards will be presented to the winners of the 2010 and 2011 prizes during the Opening Ceremony of the Congress.

The essays describing the 2010 winners' theses can be found on the IUPAC web site and cover a wide range of subject matter:

Dr. Dong: Synthetic Efficiency: Using Atom-Economical and Chemoselective Approaches towards Total Syntheses of Agelas Alkaloids, Terpestacin and Bryostatins
Dr. Gessner: Lithiumorganic Compounds: From the Structure-Reactivity Relationship to Versatile Synthetic Building Blocks and Their Application
Dr. Klajn: Self-Assembly of Nanostructured Materials
Dr. Spruell: Application of Copper-Catalyzed Reactions for the Efficient Synthesis of Donor-Acceptor Mechanically Interlocked Molecules as well as for Nanoscale Surface Patterning
Dr. Yu: Assembly and Integration of Semiconductor Nanowires for Functional Nanosystems: from Nanoelectronics to Nanobiotechnology

There were 29 applications from 15 different countries. The Prize Selection Committee comprised members of the IUPAC Bureau with a wide range of expertise in chemistry. The committee was chaired by Prof. Jung-Il Jin, IUPAC Past President. In view of the many high-quality applications, the Committee also decided to give five Honorable Mention Awards to:

Yimon Aye, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Gustavo Fernández Huertas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Jinlong Gong, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
Choongik Kim, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
Peter Wich, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

The recipients of Honorable Mention Awards will receive a cash prize of USD 100 and a copy of Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, the IUPAC Green Book.

Applications for the 2011 Prizes are now being solicited, as described on the IUPAC web site.

IUPAC was formed in 1919 by chemists from industry and academia. For almost nine decades, the Union has succeeded in fostering worldwide communications in the chemical sciences and in uniting academic, industrial and public sector chemistry in a common language. IUPAC is recognized as the world authority on chemical nomenclature, terminology, standardized methods for measurement, atomic weights and many other critically evaluated data. In more recent years, IUPAC has been pro-active in establishing a wide range of conferences and projects designed to promote and stimulate modern developments in chemistry, and also to assist in aspects of chemical education and the public understanding of chemistry. More information about IUPAC and its activities is available at iupac.org.

Press Release (pdf - 206 Kb)

Previous Winners of the Young Chemists Prize:

<- Back to: Latest News