Professor Laura Gagliardi has been named the winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faraday Lectureship Prize, celebrating the most exciting chemical science taking place today.
Professor Gagliardi won the prize for contributions to the development of multireference quantum chemical approaches to describe catalysis and excited state phenomena.
Professor Gagliardi also receives £3000 and a medal.
On receiving the prize, Professor Gagliardi said: “I was terrifically excited to learn that I had been selected for this award. I felt (and continue to feel) very honoured given the impressive list of individuals who have been prior winners of this award. I was also mindful that it would not have been possible to be so successful in my research without the many contributions from my wonderful group of students, postdocs, and my colleagues.”
Laura Gagliardi is a computational quantum chemist who is known for her contributions to the development of electronic structure methods and their use for understanding complex chemical systems. Her long-term goal is to advance these methods so that they can be employed to study energy-relevant chemical systems and materials. She is interested in discovering novel porous materials that can be employed for gas phase separations, CO2 capture, and environmental remediation.
She is an expert in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis with special focus on reactions involving C-H bond activation, which are relevant to the liquefaction of natural gas. She has also significantly advanced the field of heavy-element chemistry, where her research has ranged from the fundamental level (eg the discovery of a new type of chemical bond in the U2 molecule), to more applied efforts such as chemical separations of spent nuclear fuels. Laura also studies magnetic materials that can be used in quantum information systems.
Dr Helen Pain, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said:
“All of us have experienced tremendous challenges in the last year and the chemical sciences community has been integral to how the world has responded on a number of levels. From developing vaccines for COVID-19 to continuing to work towards a more sustainable world – the contribution of chemical scientists has never been more tangible or important.
“In a recent review of our recognition portfolio, we committed to ensuring that our prizes reflected the incredible diversity and excellence of chemistry being carried out today. Professor Gagliardi’s work is a prime example of what we are so passionate about and we are proud to recognise her contribution with this prize.”
The Royal Society of Chemistry’s prizes have recognised excellence in the chemical sciences for more than 150 years. In 2019, the organisation announced the biggest overhaul of this portfolio in its history, designed to better reflect modern science.
The Research and Innovation Prizes – of which the Faraday Lectureship Prize is one – celebrate brilliant individuals across industry and academia. They include prizes for those at different career stages in general chemistry and for those working in specific fields, as well as interdisciplinary prizes and prizes for those in specific roles.
Of those to have won a Royal Society of Chemistry Prize, over 50 have gone on to win Nobel Prizes for their pioneering work, including 2019 Nobel laureate John B Goodenough.
For more information about the RSC’s modern Prizes portfolio, visit rsc.li/prizes.