— Chemists win prizes!
The Royal Society has recognised exceptional work in chemistry as it announces the 2010 recipients of its prestigious awards and medals.
The Davy Medal, awarded annually for ‘an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry’ this year went to Carol Robinson for her ‘ground-breaking and novel use of mass spectrometry for the characterisation of large protein complexes’. Robinson won the RSC’s prize for mass spectrometry a few years ago and was profiled in Chemistry World – read about her and her work here.
Other winners this year include Andre Geim at the University of Manchester, UK, who won the Hughes Medal (awarded for an original discovery in the physical sciences) for his discovery of graphene, and Martyn Poliakoff at the University of Nottingham was awarded the Leverhulme Medal for ‘an outstandingly significant contribution in the field of pure or applied chemistry or engineering’, for his work in green chemistry and supercritical fluids. Poliakoff is also familiar to many as the face of the ever popular Periodic Table of Videos.
A full list of this year’s winners is below, and you can find out about the different awards and their history on the Royal Society’s web pages here.
Anna Lewcock
Copley Medals
Sir David Cox FRS for his seminal contributions to the theory and applications of statistics
Dr Tomas Lindahl FRS for his seminal contributions to the understanding of the biochemistry of DNA repair
Royal Medals
Professor Sir Peter Knight FRS for his pioneering research and international leadership in the field of quantum optics and quantum information science
Professor Azim Surani CBE FRS for his pivotal contributions to the understanding of early mammalian development
Professor Allen Hill FRS for his pioneering work on protein electrochemistry, which revolutionised the diagnostic testing of glucose and many other bioelectrochemical assays
Rumford Medal
Professor Gilbert Lonzarich FRS for his outstanding work into novel types of quantum matter using innovative instrumentation and techniques
Davy Medal
Professor Carol Robinson FRS for her ground-breaking and novel use of mass spectrometry for the characterisation of large protein complexes
Darwin Medal
Professor Bryan Clarke FRS for his original and influential contributions to our understanding of the genetic basis of evolution
Buchanan Medal
Professor Peter Cresswell FRS for his outstanding contributions to immunology, in particular to our understanding of the processing of foreign protein antigens within cells to stimulate T-cell immune responses
Sylvester Medal
Dr Graeme Segal FRS for his highly influential and elegant work on the development of topology, geometry and quantum field theory, bridging the gap between physics and pure mathematics
Hughes Medal
Professor Andre Geim FRS for his revolutionary discovery of graphene, and elucidation of its remarkable properties
Leverhulme Medal
Professor Martyn Poliakoff FRS for his outstanding contributions in the fields of Green Chemistry and supercritical fluids by the application of chemistry to advance chemical engineering processes
Gabor Medal
Professor Gideon Davies for his highly interdisciplinary work into the three-dimensional structures and reaction coordinates of enzymes, which has transformed glycobiochemistry
GlaxoSmithKline Prize and Lecture
Dr Stephen West FRS in recognition of his pioneering work on the molecular mechanisms of genetic recombination and DNA repair and their relation to tumorigenesis
Armourers and Brasiers’ Company Prize
Professor Philip Withers in recognition of his pioneering use of neutron and hard x-ray beams to map stresses and image defects in industrial scale components and devices
Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture
Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE FRS in recognition of her excellence in communicating science
Rosalind Franklin Award
Professor Katherine Blundell for her scientific achievements in astrophysics, suitability as a role model and her proposal to promote women in STEM
Bakerian Lecture
Professor Herbert Huppert FRS for his seminal research into geological fluid dynamics
Clifford Paterson Lecture
Professor S. Ravi P. Silva for his outstanding contributions to basic science and engineering in the field of carbon nanoscience and nanotechnology
Croonian Lecture
Professor John Ellis FRS for his pioneering contributions to biochemistry, molecular cell biology and also plant sciences
Francis Crick Lecture
Professor Gil McVean for his major contributions to the field of population and statistical genetics
