Vol. 29 No. 4
July-August 2007

2007 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists

On 12 April 2007, IUPAC announced the winners of the 2007 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists, awards for the best Ph.D. theses in the chemical sciences as described in 1000-word essays. The five winners are:

• Deanna D’Alessandro, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia
• Euan R. Kay, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• Anna Aleksandra Michrowska, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
• Taleb Mokari, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
• Feng Tao, Princeton University, New Jersey, USA

The winners will each receive a cash prize of USD 1000 and a free trip to the IUPAC Congress, 5–11 August 2007, in Torino, Italy. Each prizewinner is also 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 his/her research topic to be published in Pure and Applied Chemistry. The awards will be presented to the winners of the 2006 and 2007 prizes during the Opening Ceremony of the Congress.

The following essays describing the 2007 winners’ theses, which cover a wide range of subject matter, can be found on the IUPAC website:

• D’Alessandro, “Stereochemical Effects on Intervalence Charge Transfer”
• Kay, “Mechanized Molecules”
• Michrowska, “Search for New Hoveyda-Grubbs Catalysts and their Application in Metathesis of Alkenes”
• Mokari, “Developing a New Composite of Nanocrystals with Semiconductor-Insulator and Semiconductor-Metal Interfaces”
• Tao, “Nanoscale Surface Chemistry of Organic Layers on Solid Surfaces Formed through Weak Noncovalent Interactions and Strong Chemical Bonds”

There were 57 applications from 24 different countries. The Prize Selection Committee was comprised of members of the IUPAC Bureau with a wide range of expertise in chemistry. The committee was chaired by Leiv K. Sydnes, IUPAC past president.

In view of the many high-quality applications, the committee decided to also give two Honorable Mention awards to:

• Joshua Goldberger, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Brian H. Northrop, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

The Honorable Mention Award winners will receive a cash prize of USD 100 and a copy of the Compendium of Chemical Terminology, the IUPAC “Gold Book.”

Applications for the 2008 Prize are now being solicited, as described on page 31 and on the IUPAC website <www.iupac.org/news/prize.html>.

www.iupac.org/news/prize/2007_winners.html