2022 Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship winner: Sahika Inal

We are delighted to announce that Professor Sahika Inal has been selected as the winner of the Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship 2022.

The Journal of Materials Chemistry annual lectureship, established in 2010, honours early-career scientists who have made a significant contribution to the field of materials chemistry. Congratulations to Sahika!

“I am delighted to have this prestigious recognition and committed to contributing further to the materials chemistry research and the community”

Sahika Inal is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering with co-affiliations in Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering programs at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). She has a B.Sc. degree in Textile Engineering from Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), an M.Sc. in Polymer Science, and a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics, both from the University of Potsdam (Germany). She completed her postdoctoral training at the Center of Microelectronics of Provence of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne (France). Her expertise is in polymer science and bioelectronic devices, particularly in the photophysics of conjugated polymers, characterization of polymer films, and the design of biosensors and actuators. Since 2016, Inal lab at KAUST exploits the functionalities of organic electronic materials, investigates ionic/electronic charge transport, and designs electronic devices that record/stimulate biological signals. Sahika is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has received recognitions including ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award 2022, Beilby Medal and Prize 2022, 2023 WCC Rising Star (ACS), and has been shortlisted for the Nature Research Awards for Inspiring Women in Science in 2021. She is the author of 97+ publications, and her work has been cited more than 7900 times.

Twitter: @InalSahika

Group website: https://bioel.kaust.edu.sa/


Please join us in congratulating Sahika on receiving the award. To celebrate, we have put together a collection of her publications in Royal Society of Chemistry journals:

Read the collection

Our 2022 runners-up

Each year we have a large number of excellent researchers nominated for the lectureship award across Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C. To recognise the diversity of the three journals, overall community and candidates nominated each year, going forward we have decided to additionally recognise runners-up for the Journal of Materials Chemistry lectureship.

Professor Luisa Whittaker-Brooks

Luisa Whittaker-Brooks is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Utah. Her research centers on the design of well-defined hybrid materials with controlled morphology and interfaces that serve as conduits for deterministic and coherent energy and charge transfer for applications in energy conversion, storage, and electronics. Dr. Whittaker-Brooks received her B.S. degree in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Panama. Under a Fulbright Fellowship, she received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Chemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University. She is the recipient of the 2013 L’Oréal Fellowship for Women in Science Award and the 2015 Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She was named a Scialog and Cottrell Fellow by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA), a Talented 12 by C&En news, and a GERA Ovshinsky Energy Fellow by the American Physical Society (APS).  She is also the recipient of a Department of Energy Early Career Award, a Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry, and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award.

Dr Jessica Wade

Dr Jess Wade is a physicist specializing in materials science, with a focus on new materials for next-generation technologies. Jess is interested in the use of molecular chirality to control the spin of photons and electrons, and the development of advanced characterisation techniques to investigate and optimise their functional properties. Chiral functional materials are promising candidates for more efficient displays, more sensitive photodetectors and room temperature, low-cost spintronics. She is currently a Research Fellow at Imperial College London. She is committed to improving diversity in science, both online and offline, and she has led and contributed to several initiatives to engage girls in physics, chemistry, and engineering. Since the start of 2018 Jess Wade has written the Wikipedia biographies of women and people of colour scientists every single day. She has also written a children’s book on materials and nanoscience called “Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small”.

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