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Researchers from 51³Ô¹ÏÍø have been recognised by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) with a range of prizes highlighting their contributions to cutting-edge research in energy, materials, and chemical biology.

Dr Becky Greenaway – Materials Chemistry mid-career prize: Peter Day Prize

has been awarded the , which celebrates outstanding contributions made by a mid-career scientist in any area of materials chemistry.

She is recognised for the development of streamlined high-throughput automated workflows for the accelerated discovery of supramolecular and porous materials, and for the realisation and development of different types of porous liquids.

Dr Greenaway’s research focuses on designing and discovering novel molecular organic materials, particularly porous organic cages and liquids. Her group uses supramolecular chemistry, automation and computational modelling to accelerate material discovery, with applications in gas storage, separation and catalysis, and to better understand molecular assembly and complex self‑sorted structures.

On receiving the prize, she said, "I feel incredibly honoured to have been awarded this prize, it’s fantastic to have our work on automation and porous liquids recognised, and it goes without saying that I wouldn’t have received this prize if it wasn’t for all of the talented researchers I get to work with daily and my amazing collaborators and colleagues."

Dr Alex Ganose - RSC Materials Chemistry Early Career Prize

has been awarded the , recognising the outstanding contributions made by early-career scientists in the field of materials chemistry.

He is recognised for the development and application of innovative computational methods to predict the properties of semiconductors for applications in energy technologies.

His research uses computational materials chemistry, machine learning, and data science to design new materials for pressing technological problems, including renewable energy generation (photovoltaics & thermoelectrics) and energy storage. His group have developed novel computational tools to tackle these goals, including an efficient formalism for calculating electronic transport in semiconductors and the high-throughput workflow software atomate2.

Reflecting on the recognition, he commented: "I am thrilled to receive the Materials Chemistry Early Career Prize. It is a milestone for me and my group, and a reflection of the talented students, postdocs, and collaborators I have been lucky to work with."

Dr Nuria Tapia-Ruiz - The Environment, Sustainability & Energy Division mid-career Prize

has been awarded the , which is presented for outstanding contributions made by a mid-career scientist in the area of environment, sustainability and energy. The winner receives £3000, a medal and a certificate.

She is recognised for new earth-abundant materials chemistry and mechanistic insight, providing design rules for sustainable sodium-ion batteries with higher energy and longer life.

Dr Tapia-Ruiz researches advanced materials for electrochemical energy storage, focusing on lithium- and sodium-ion batteries and investigating structure–property relationships to design safer, more sustainable, high-performance next-generation energy storage systems.

On being recognised, she said: “I'm really delighted by this recognition. Prizes like this are never about one person but a reflection of everyone I've worked with: students, postdocs, collaborators and mentors who backed me early on. I'm very grateful to the Royal Society of Chemistry. I came to the UK from Barcelona to do a PhD and ended up building a career here, and being recognised by the RSC is something I wouldn't have dared imagine back then.”

Professor Ed Tate - Interdisciplinary Prize

has been awarded an , which recognises work at the interface between chemistry and other disciplines.

He is recognised for chemical biology approaches to reveal unique insights in protein post-translational modification, and for delivering chemical probes and first-in-class therapeutic strategies.

Professor Tate’s research spans chemical biology and chemical proteomics, developing chemical tools to study protein modification in living systems. His work focuses on understanding disease mechanisms and discovering drug targets, combining chemistry, biology and medicine to enable new therapeutic approaches.

On receiving the award, he reflected: "I am particularly pleased to receive this prize because it recognises the important role that chemistry plays in modern biology. Genomics has transformed our ability to associate genes with disease, but understanding mechanism ultimately requires a molecular perspective: how proteins function, how they interact, and how they can be manipulated therapeutically. Throughout my career, I have been interested in developing chemical tools that make previously inaccessible biology tractable. As biology becomes increasingly data-rich and genomics-driven, I believe molecular understanding will become ever more important. This work has always been highly interdisciplinary, and I am fortunate to have worked with many outstanding coworkers and collaborators who have helped shape it."

Professor Ifan Stephens - Corday-Morgan Mid-Career Prize for Chemistry

has been awarded the 2026 in recognition of outstanding contributions to chemistry research.

He is recognised for his research into new ways to produce essential chemicals using electricity rather than fossil fuels, with a particular focus on ammonia. Ammonia is the key ingredient in most fertilisers and underpins global food production, but its production accounts for around 1–2% of global carbon dioxide emissions. His research is helping to support the development of more resilient and sustainable fertiliser production technologies.

His group uses electricity to convert nitrogen from the air into ammonia under mild conditions, providing new insights into how these reactions take place and how they can be improved. Their work has shown that the catalysts involved change continuously during operation, and that these changes may be key to enabling the conversion of nitrogen into ammonia.

Professor Stephens’ second area of research focuses on understanding gas evolution in batteries and other electrochemical devices. By developing measurement techniques that are around one hundred times more sensitive than previous approaches, his group is revealing processes that were previously invisible and helping to inform the design of longer-lasting batteries and energy storage technologies.

On receiving the prize, Professor Stephens said: “I am delighted and honoured to receive this award. I have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with outstanding people throughout my career. This includes students, postdoctoral researchers, technical specialists, professional staff and collaborators. My group benefits enormously from carrying out its research at the Molecular Sciences Research Hub and the Henry Royce Institute at our White City campus. These unique environments bring together researchers from many disciplines to tackle fundamental scientific challenges and make a positive difference to society. We also have a great deal of fun along the way. This prize reflects the contributions of all those I have had the privilege to work with.”

Dr Gwilherm Kerherve - Technical Excellence Prize

has been awarded the 2026 , which recognises outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences made by individuals and teams working in technical roles.

He is recognised for the creation and development of , a transformative open-source software platform for X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, helping researchers to better understand the chemistry of material surfaces.

XPS is one of the most widely used techniques for studying the chemistry of material surfaces. It examines the outermost few nanometres of a material, the region that determines how it behaves in areas such as catalysis, corrosion, electronics and energy devices.

Interpreting XPS data is often the most challenging part of the process. Researchers must separate complex, overlapping signals to reveal the underlying chemistry of a material, a task that can be time-consuming and difficult to learn. KherveFitting was developed to address this challenge, simplifying analysis while maintaining the rigour needed for high-quality research.

Unlike many established XPS software packages, which can be expensive and difficult to learn, KherveFitting is freely available and easy to use. This helps students, smaller research groups and scientists in less well-funded institutions gain access to high-quality analytical tools. Since its release, the software has become an international resource, with around a thousand downloads per month from researchers in approximately sixty countries.

On the impact of the work, Dr Kerherve said, “As the research officer responsible for XPS, I train PhD students and postdocs on data analysis constantly. With the software we used before, this was a tedious process: it was slow, hard to teach, and the quality of the analysis often suffered as a result. KherveFitting has changed that. The core concepts are now far easier to explain, students become productive much faster, and tasks that used to take a long time are done in a fraction of the time. By making rigorous XPS analysis accessible and free, the tool removes a barrier that affects researchers everywhere, not just in my own lab but all around the world.”

Dr Reshma Rao – Faraday early career prize: Marlow Prize

has been awarded the 2026 , which recognises outstanding contributions made by an early career scientist in any area of physical chemistry.

She is recognised for her research into catalytic processes that underpin the transition to net zero, particularly the development of approaches that reveal how catalysts work under real operating conditions.

Her work focuses on improving catalysts that convert renewable energy into clean fuels and chemicals. These reactions take place at complex solid-liquid interfaces, and remain poorly understood, limiting the rational design of improved catalysts.

To address this, her group studies catalysts while they are actively operating, allowing reaction processes to be observed in real time. A key application of this approach has been water splitting, an important reaction for producing green hydrogen. By tracking how catalysts behave during operation, the research is helping to explain why some materials perform better than others and how they might be improved. These insights are supporting the development of more efficient and affordable catalysts for renewable energy and environmental applications.

On receiving the prize, Dr Rao said: "What excites me most is the opportunity to see chemistry in action. Many of the technologies needed for a sustainable future depend on catalytic reactions that occur at complex solid–liquid interfaces, yet the fundamental processes governing them have remained difficult to observe and understand. By developing techniques that allow us to study catalysts under real operating conditions, our research reveals why some materials perform better than others and uncovers the molecular mechanisms that drive their activity. These insights not only advance our fundamental understanding of chemistry but also provide the knowledge needed to design more efficient and affordable catalysts for clean energy technologies, helping accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future.”

She added: “Research breakthroughs rarely happen in isolation. This recognition reflects the collective efforts of mentors who guide me, colleagues who challenge and inspire me, and the researchers in my group whose enthusiasm and dedication make ambitious ideas possible. I am proud to share this achievement with them.”