Archive for the ‘ChemComm Emerging Investigators Lectureship’ Category

2024 ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship winners

Announcing our joint winners for 2024, Federico Bella and Grace Han

On behalf of the ChemComm Editorial Board, we are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship – Federico Bella (Politecnico di Torino) and Grace Han (Brandeis University).

Federico and Grace join our recent past winners Josep Cornella (2022), Keary Engle and Thomas Bennett (2021).

Get to know more about Federico and Grace below:

Federico Bella is Full Professor of Chemistry at Politecnico di Torino (Italy). His main scientific activity covers post-lithium batteries and electrochemical ammonia production, through sustainable chemistry-oriented and multivariate approaches. He has published more than 130 papers and counts a h-index of 75. He has received awards from the most important worldwide scientific associations, such as the International Society of Electrochemistry (2023 Tajima Prize), the Royal Society of Chemistry (2021 Horizon Prize), and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2019 Piontelli International Award). He is coordinating an ERC Starting Grant project (SuN2rise), with an overall fund of 1.5 M euros, and has recently launched the first Italian research laboratory on potassium-based batteries.

Discover the latest research coming out of Federico’s laboratory at https://www.facebook.com/ElectrochemistryGroupPoliTO

 

 

Grace Han received her PhD in 2015 at MIT, where she worked with Professor Timothy Swager on the development of organic materials for photovoltaics. She then joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT as a postdoctoral associate with Professor Jeffrey Grossman. Grace has been awarded several honors during her independent career, including a 2022 AFOSR Young Investigator Research Program Award, a 2022 NSF CAREER award, a 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a 2023 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, a 2023 DFG Mercator Fellowship, and a 2023 DoD DURIP Award.

She is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Brandeis University, and her group’s research focuses on the discovery of molecular photoswitches and photochemistry for applications including the solar energy conversion and storage, optically-controlled catalyst recycling, and light-induced phase transitions.

Find more info about Grace and her group on Twitter @GraceGDHan.

 

 

As part of the Lectureship award, Federico and Grace will be presenting lectures over the coming 12 months. Details of the lectures will be announced in due course but keep an eye on our Twitter @ChemCommun and Linkedin for details!

Highly Commended Nominations

Each year, many excellent researchers get nominated for the ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship award. Due to the repeatedly very high standard of nominations this year, we have again decided to select a number of Highly Commended candidates, who the Editorial Board highlighted as performing exceptional science and deserving of recognition in the community.

Michael Booth is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at University College London, UK. He also holds a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, and a Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford, UK. The Booth research group focuses on developing new chemical modifications of nucleic acids and demonstrating their application in synthetic biology and medicine.

Find out more about Michael’s research at his group’s homepage.

 

 

 

 

 

Cesar de la Fuente is a Presidential Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania where he leads the Machine Biology Group. He completed his postdoctoral research at MIT and earned a PhD from UBC. His research aims to use machines to accelerate biological and medical discoveries. He developed the first computer-designed antibiotic effective in animal models, helping launch the field of AI for antibiotic discovery. His lab has pioneered computational methods to mine biological information, leading to new antimicrobials and exploring the human proteome as an antibiotic source. They were the first to find therapeutic molecules in extinct organisms, initiating the field of molecular de-extinction. Prof. de la Fuente was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Langer Prize and as an ACS Kavli Emerging Leader in Chemistry, an ASM Distinguished Lecturer, Waksman Foundation Lecturer, and received the Miklós Bondanszky Award, AIChE’s 35 Under 35 Award, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Young Investigator Award, and the ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Award. He has been named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate multiple times, and has given over 250 invited lectures, including numerous Keynote and Named Lectures, and has spoken at TEDx.

Find out more about Cesar’s research at his group’s homepage.

 

 

Nikolay Kornienko obtained his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2016 (advisor: Prof. Peidong Yang). He then carried out postdoctoral studies at the University of Cambridge as a Royal Society Newton Fellow from 2016-2018 (advisor: Prof. Erwin Reisner). Following this, Prof. Kornienko began his independent career at the University of Montreal, first as an Assistant Professor and then as an Associate Professor. In 2023, Prof. Kornienko moved to the University of Bonn in Germany as a Full W3 Professor in the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry. His group focuses on electrocatalyst development, reaction mechanisms, and new routes for small molecule activation, all in the context of sustainability.

Find out more about Nikolay’s research at his group’s homepage.

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Josep Cornella: Winner of the ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2022/23!

On behalf of the ChemComm Editorial Board, we are pleased to announce the winner of the 2022/23 ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship – Josep Cornella! Our warmest congratulations to Josep!
 
Josep Cornella join recent past winners  Keary Engle (2021), Thomas Bennett (2021) and Bill Morandi (2020). Learn more about Josep below.

Josep Cornella (Pep) is a Max Planck Group Leader in the Department of Organometallic Chemistry at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. He received  his PhD in 2012 from Queen Mary University of London, where he worked with  Prof. Igor Larrosa on the use of aromatic carboxylic acids as aryl donors in metal-catalyzed decarboxylative reactions. He then moved back to Catalunya as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Ruben Martin (ICIQ) and further received a Beatriu de Pinós Fellowship in 2015 to carry out further postdoctoral studies in the group of Prof. Phil S. Baran at The Scripps Research Institute, California, USA.

He joined Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in spring 2017 and in summer of the same year, he obtained a Max Planck Research Group Leader (MPRGL) position in the same Institute to create and lead the Sustainable Catalysis Laboratory. His research group interests span from the invention of new catalytic transformations to the design of novel catalysts to uncover previously unknown pathways. You can learn more about Josep’s group and his research on Twitter @CornellaLab

As part of the Lectureship award, Josep will be presenting lectures over the coming 12 months. Details of the lectures will be announced in due course but keep an eye on Twitter @ChemCommun for details!

 

Highly Commended Nominations

Each year, a large number of excellent researchers gets nominated for the ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship award. Due to the extremely high standard of nominations this year, we have decided to select a number of Highly Commended candidates, who the Editorial Board highlighted as performing exceptional science and deserving of recognition in the community.

 

 

Shoubhik Das received his PhD from the group of Prof. Matthias Beller in the Leibniz Institute of Catalysis (LIKAT), Germany. After finishing his PhD, he joined the group of Prof. Matthew Gaunt at the University of Cambridge for postdoctoral fellowship’ followed by working with Prof. Paul Dyson in EPFL, Switzerland. In August 2015 he received the ‘Liebig Fellowship’ to start his independent research career at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Followed by this, he accepted the Assistant Professor position in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Antwerp, Belgium in November 2019. In August 2023, he will be joining as the full professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Follow Shoubhik’s research on Twitter @shoubhikdas4

 

 

 

Ellen Matson obtained her PhD from Purdue University under the supervision of Prof. Suzanne C. Bart studying the synthesis of low-valent uranium alkyl complexes. Subsequently, Ellen performed postdoctoral research with Prof. Alison R. Fout at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.  Ellen began her independent career at the University of Rochester in 2015; the Matson Laboratory studies the synthesis and reactivity of metal chalcogenide clusters as model systems for surfaces and redox active metalloligands. Ellen has received multiple awards recognizing her research accomplishments as an independent investigator; these include a Sloan Research Fellowship (2019), a Cottrell Award (2019), and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2020). Most recently, Ellen was named the Kavli Foundation Emerging Leader in Chemistry (2022).

Follow Ellen’s research on Twitter @MatsonLab

 

 

 

Sophie Rousseaux obtained her PhD from University of Ottawa working with Prof. Keith Fagnou on Pd-catalyzed aliphatic C–H bond functionalization reactions. In 2010, she moved to MIT to complete her graduate research with Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald. She was a NSERC postdoctoral fellow and Glasstone Research Fellow at University of Oxford from 2012–2015, where she worked with Prof. Harry L. Anderson. Sophie joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto in 2015 where she currently is an Associate Professor and also holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Organic Chemistry since 2016. Her group’s research interests include organic synthesis, catalysis, and organometallic chemistry, with a particular focus on the synthesis of small rings and nitrile-containing molecules. Her group’s work has been recognized by several awards including the CSC Keith Fagnou Award (2023), the McLean Research Fellowship (2022), the Organic Letters Outstanding Publication of the Year Lectureship (2022), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2021), an Ontario Early Researcher Award (2021), and the Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty Science Award of Excellence (2020).

Follow Sophie’s research at @RousseauxGroup or her department’s Twitter handle @chemuoft

Keep up-to-date with our latest journal news on Twitter @ChemCommun or via our blog! Learn more about ChemComm online!

Sign up for a Chemistry Briefing: if you would like to stay informed about new resources and publishing updates, please opt in to our email newsletter.

                                                                                    

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Keary Engle and Thomas Bennett: Winners of the ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2021!

Keary and Thomas join recent past winners Raffaella Buonsanti (2019), Corinna Schindler (2019), and Bill Morandi (2020). Learn more about Keary and Thomas below.

Image of Keary Engle

Keary Engle received his PhD in chemistry from Scripps Research and his DPhil in biochemistry from Oxford University in the unique, five-year Skaggs-Oxford Scholarship program that he completed in 2013. Within the program, he trained with renowned chemists Jin-Quan Yu at Scripps Research and Véronique Gouverneur and John M. Brown at Oxford. Among his many honours, Keary has been awarded a 2019 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the 2019 Novartis Early Career Award in Chemistry, a 2020 Cottrell Scholar Award, a 2020 Eli Lilly Organic Chemistry Award, the 2020 Amgen Young Investigator Award, and most recently, a 2021 NSF CAREER Award.

He is currently a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research. His group harnesses the power of catalysis to advance the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of chemical synthesis. You can learn more about Keary’s group and his research on Twitter @englelab.

Learn more about Keary’s research by reading his recent Feature Article in ChemComm:

Recent advances in palladium-catalyzed (hetero)annulation of C=C bonds with ambiphilic organo(pseudo)halides

Keary M. Engle et al.

Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 7610-7624

This article will be free to read from 1st December 2021 – 1st January 2022.

 

Thomas Bennett

Tom was awarded his PhD in 2012 at the University of Cambridge, where he worked with Professor Anthony Cheetham FRS on the physical properties of hybrid frameworks. He has received several fellowships and awards, including a Royal Society Research Fellowship (2016), the Woldemar A. Weyl award for glass science (2019), the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Chemistry (2019) and the Royal Society of Chemistry Harrison Meldola Memorial Prize (2020). He has held visiting positions at the University of Kyoto, the Wuhan University of Technology, and the University of Canterbury New Zealand | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, and is vice-chair of the international MOF advisory committee, and outgoing chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry Porous Materials Group.

He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Cambridge, where his research group are best known for the discovery of hybrid melt-quenched glasses, and seminal works exploring the interface of the coordination polymer, MOF and glass domains. Find out more about Tom and his group on Twitter @thomasdbennett.

Learn more about Thomas’ research by reading his recent Open Access Communication in ChemComm:

Glassy behaviour of mechanically amorphised ZIF-62 isomorphs

Thomas D. Bennett et al.

Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 9272-9275            

As part of the Lectureship award, Keary and Thomas will each be presenting lectures over the coming 12 months. Details of the lectures will be announced in due course but keep an eye on Twitter @ChemCommun for details!

Keep up-to-date with our latest journal news on Twitter @ChemCommun or via our blog! Learn more about ChemComm online!

Sign up for a Chemistry Briefing: if you would like to stay informed about new resources and publishing updates, please opt in to our email newsletter.

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ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2021 – nominations now open!

We are pleased to welcome nominations for the 2021 Emerging Investigator Lectureship for ChemComm.
All nominations must be received by 1st February 2021.

ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship

  • Recognises emerging scientists in the early stages of their independent academic career.
  • Eligible nominees should have completed their PhD in 2013 or later. Appropriate consideration will be given to those who have taken a career break or followed a different study path.

Lectureship details

  • The award aims to recognise emerging scientists in the early stages of their independent academic career. The winner will be invited to present a lecture on their work, as well as receive £1500 and a certificate of recognition.
  • The recipient will be asked to contribute a review article for the journal.

How to nominate

  • Self-nomination is not permitted. Nominators must send the following to the editorial team via chemcomm-rsc@rsc.org by 1st February 2021.
  • Recommendation letter, including the name, contact details and website URL of the nominee.
  • A one-page CV for the nominee, including a summary of their education, dates of key career achievements, a list of up to five of their top independent publications, total numbers of publications and patents, and other indicators of esteem, together with evidence of career independence.
  • A copy of the candidate’s best publication to date (as judged by the nominator).
  • Two supporting letters of recommendation from two independent referees. These should not be someone from the same institution or the candidate’s post doc or PhD supervisor.
  • The nominator and independent referees should comment on the candidate’s presenting skills.

Incomplete nominations or those not adhering to the above requirements will not be considered, and nominees will not be contacted regarding any missing or incorrect documents.

Selection procedure

  • The editorial team will screen each nomination for eligibility and draw up a shortlist of candidates based on the nomination documents provided.
  • The recipient of the lectureship will then be selected and endorsed by a selection panel composed of members of the ChemComm Editorial Board. The winner will be announced in the summer of 2021.

NB: Please note that members of the selection panel from the ChemComm Editorial Board are not eligible to nominate, or provide references, for this lectureship.

For any queries, please contact the editorial team at chemcomm-rsc@rsc.org.

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Bill Morandi: Winner of the ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2020!

On behalf of the ChemComm Editorial Board, we are pleased to announce the winner of the 2020 ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship – Professor Bill Morandi (ETH Zurich)! Our warmest congratulations to Bill!

Bill Morandi studied at the ETH Zurich from 2003–2012, earning a B.Sc. in Biology, an M.Sc. in Chemical Biology and a PhD in Organic Chemistry working with Prof. Erick M. Carreira. After a postdoc with Prof. Robert H. Grubbs at CalTech, he led an independent Max Planck Research Group from 2014–2018 at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Germany. Since July 2018, he is a tenured Associate Professor at the Laboratorium für Organische Chemie (ETH Zurich), where he holds a chair in synthetic organic chemistry.

His research program targets the development of new concepts in catalysis, with a particular emphasis on employing inexpensive and sustainable catalysts to transform broadly available feedstocks, such as polyols and hydrocarbons, into valuable building blocks for applications in medicine and materials science. His research program has been recognized by several honours, including the Novartis Early Career Award in Organic Chemistry, the Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award, the Carl Duisberg Memorial Prize from the German Chemical Society, the Ružička Prize from the ETH Zurich and the Academy Prize for Chemistry from the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities. You can also learn more about Bill’s group and research on Twitter @morandilab.

“I dedicate this award to current and past group members who have all made invaluable contributions to the group’s success in the past 6 years. It is certainly a special honour to receive this award as I greatly value the scientific excellence of the journal Chemical Communications

Learn more about Bill’s research by reading his Communication in ChemComm:

Atom-economical cobalt-catalysed regioselective coupling of epoxides and aziridines with alkenes
Gabriele Prina Cerai & Bill Morandi
Chem. Commun., 2016, 52, 9769-9772

This article will be free to read from 10th August – 7th September 2020.

As part of the Lectureship award, Bill will be presenting a number of lectures over the coming year. Details of the lectures will be announced in due course but keep an eye on Twitter @ChemCommun for details!

Keep up-to-date with our latest journal news on Twitter @ChemCommun or via our blog! Learn more about ChemComm online!

Sign up for a Chemistry Briefing: if you would like to stay informed about new resources and publishing updates, please opt in to our email newsletter.

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