Winners of 2012 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists

doi:10.1515/ci.2012.34.6.17b

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Winners of 2012 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists

Published/Copyright: November 1, 2012

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From the journal Chemistry International -- Newsmagazine for IUPAC Volume 34 Issue 6

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Winners of 2012 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists

In early July 2012, IUPAC announced the winners of the 2012 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists, which are awarded for the best Ph.D. theses in the chemical sciences as described in 1000-word essays. The six winners are as follows:

Khalid Albahily, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Tzahi Cohen-Karni, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Alexander Spokoyny, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
Judy I-Chia Wu, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Lei Yang, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
Charles Yeung, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The winners will each receive a cash prize of USD 1000 and travel expenses to the 44th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, 11–16 August 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey, where they will present posters describing their award-winning works. They will also be invited to submit a short critical review on aspects of their research topic to be published in Pure and Applied Chemistry.

The essays describing the winners’ theses can be found on the IUPAC website and cover a wide range of subject matter:

Dr. Albahily: “Study of the Factors Affecting the Selectivity of Catalytic Ethylene Oligomerization”
Dr. Cohen-Karni: “Nanowire Nanoelectronics: Building Interfaces with Tissue and Cells at the Natural Scale of Biology”
Dr. Spokoyny: “Synthetic Investigations Featuring Boron-Rich and Multidentate Chalcoether-Containing Ligands”
Dr. Wu: “Quantification of Virtual Chemical Properties: Strain, Hyperconjugation, Conjugation, and Aromaticity”
Dr. Yang: “New Materials for Intermediate-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells to be Powered by Carbon- and Sulfur-Containing Fuels”
Dr. Yeung:“Transition Metal Catalysis: Activation of CO₂,C–H, and C–O Bonds En Route to Carboxylic Acids, Biaryls, and N-Containing Heterocycles”

These young chemists completed their Ph.D.s in the USA or Canada, but they are well traveled and most have international experience, including bachelor or master’s degrees from institution such as the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, the Technion Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Tung-Hai University in Taiwan, and Tsinghua University and Beihang University in China.

The Prize Selection Committee, which comprises members of the IUPAC Bureau with a wide range of expertise in chemistry, is chaired by IUPAC Past President Nicole Moreau. Moreau stated that “the Committee had a difficult task in selecting the winners, and exceptionally, we decided to award six winners instead of five as IUPAC did in former years. I can not wait to meet these young chemists at the IUPAC Congress next year in Istanbul and I wish them all great success in their future careers.”

In view of the many high-quality applications, the committee also awarded five Honorable Mention awards:

Hua Lu, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
Stephen Morin, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
David Scanlon, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Joerg Schrittwieser, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Sihai Yang, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

There were 41 applications from 19 different countries. On the judging task, Javier Garcia-Martinez, Bureau member from Spain, commented that “this has been a really difficult task as the CV and the essays of some candidates are truly impressive.”

Applications for the 2013 Prizes are now being solicited; application deadline is 1 February 2013.

www.iupac.org

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Published Online: 2012-11-01

Published in Print: 2012-11

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ci.2012.34.6.17b