DivCHED CCCE: Committee on Computers in Chemical Education

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2. The IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists

Fully aware that the future of chemistry is in the hands of young scientists, IUPAC recognizes the importance of encouraging, supporting, and fostering the career development of young scientists throughout the world. The Union feels strongly that such an encouragement is critical to the future of chemistry, and that this would support the worldwide role of chemistry for the benefit of Mankind.

In pursuit of this spirit, the Union established in 2000 the IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists and has been honouring since then outstanding young research chemists at the beginning of their careers by making annual awards. The prizes are given for the most outstanding Ph.D. theses in the area of the chemical sciences, as described in 1000-word essays. IUPAC awards up to five prizes annually, each comprising USD 1000 and travel expenses to the next IUPAC Congress. Each awardee is invited to present a poster on his/her research and to participate in a plenary award session. The prize winners are also invited to offer review papers on their research topics for consideration as publications in Pure and Applied Chemistry (PAC).

3. A Special Issue for IYC

In December 2008, UN accepted the proposal of IUPAC to proclaim 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry, placing IUPAC and UNESCO at the helm of the event. The declared goals of IYC 2011 are to “increase public appreciation of chemistry in meeting world needs, to encourage an interest in chemistry among young people, and to generate enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry”. By happy coincidence, 2011 is the 100^th anniversary of the Nobel Prize awarded to Marie Curie, and is thus also an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women to science, and recognize the ongoing challenge of ensuring equal opportunity for all in career development. Most importantly, Marie Curie is an inspirational role model, not only to women but to all young students, and it is altogether fitting that the coming generation of scientists should be closely identified with IYC 2011, since enthusiasm is a defining characteristic of youth.

Consequently, in January 2011, the issue of PAC, “Perspectives and Challenges for the International Year of Chemistry”  (vol. 83, Issue 1) has been a very special one, with a preface by the President of IUPAC, and a collection of 17 articles from past winners of the Prize during its ten first years, 2000-2009. This appears as an excellent means of looking at what the prize has been for them. http://www.chemistry2011.org/participate/activities/show?id=469.

The contents of this issue was as follows (between brackets, year of the Prize and present country) :

iv         Preface, Nicole Moreau

1  Redox properties of CdSe and CdSe–ZnS quantum dots in solution
  Matteo Amelia, Tommaso Avellini, Simone Monaco, Stefania Impellizzeri, Ibrahim Yildiz, Françisco M. Raymo and Alberto Credi* (2000, Italy) 
9  Synthetic biodegradable elastomers for drug delivery and tissue engineering
  Christopher J. Bettinger* (2009, USA) 
25 Reaction dynamics in the formidable gap
Roman Boulatov* (2003, USA)
43 Conjugated polyelectrolyte–lipid interactions: Opportunities in biosensing
An Thien Ngo, Pierre Karam and Gonzalo Cosa* (2003, Canada) 
57  Toward carbon dioxide capture using nanoporous materials
Deanna M. D'Alessandro* (2007, USA) and Thomas McDonald
67 The role of NMR in the study of partially ordered materials: Perspectives and challenges
Valentina Domenici* (2006, Italy) 
95 Graphene oxide as surfactant sheets
Laura J. Cote, Jaemyung Kim, Vincent C. Tung, Jiayan Luo, Franklin Kim and Jiaxing Huang* (2005, USA )
111 Biomimetic synthesis of inorganic materials and their applications
Yujing Li, Chin-Yi Chiu and Yu Huang* (2004, USA)
127 Recent design strategies for polymer solar cell materials
David Bilby, Bong Gi Kim and Jinsang Kim* (2002, USA) 
141 Progress and design challenges for high‑spin molecules
Martin T. Lemaire* (2003, Canada)
151  Chemistry meets nutrition: Toward a systems biological description of human metabolism
Stefan Lorkowski* (2002, Germany) 
167  Energy-related applications of functional porous metal–organic frameworks
Shengqian Ma* (2009, USA) and Le Meng
189  Charge-by-charge assemblies based on planar anion receptors
Hiromitsu Maeda* (2005, Japan) and Yohei Haketa
201  Energy, supramolecular chemistry, fullerenes, and the sky
Emilio M. Pérez* (2006, Spain)
213  Fluorescent ribonucleoside analogues as probes for investigating RNA structure and function
Seergazhi G. Srivatsan* (2004, India) and Anupam A. Sawant
233  Biofunctionalization of gold nanorods
Sung-Yeon Hwang and Andrea R. Tao* (2008, USA) 
243  Integration of surface science, nanoscience, and catalysis
  Cun Wen, Yi Liu and Franklin Tao* (2007, USA)

Hereunder the title of the PhD which deserved the attribution of the prize to the winners:

2000     Dr. Credi, "Molecular-Level Machines and Logic Gates;"
2009     Dr Bettinger, “Synthesis and Microfabrication of Elastomeric Biomaterials for Advanced Tissue    Engineering Scaffolds”;
2003     Dr. Boulatov, "Synthesis and Reactivity of Metalloporphyrins in (A) Biomimetic Studies and (B) the Preparation of Novel Heterodinuclear Multiple Metal-Metal Bonds;”
2003     Dr. Cosa, "Mechanism of Degradation of Pharmaceutical Products and Analogues, and Development of a Novel Fluorescence Technique for DNA-damage Detection;"
2007     Dr. D'Alessandro, "Stereochemical Effects on Intervalence Charge Transfer"
2006     Dr. Domenici, "Structure, Orientational Order and Dynamics of Rod-Like and Banana-Shaped Liquid Crystals by Means of ²H NMR: New Developments"
2004     Dr. Huang, "Integrated Nanoscale Electronics and Optoelectronics: Exploring Nanoscale Science and Technology through Semiconductor Nanowires;"
2005     Dr Huang, “Conducting Polymer Nanofibers: Syntheses, Properties and Applications”;
2002     Dr. Kim, "Supramolecular Assemblies of Conjugated Sensory Polymers and the Optimization of Transport Properties;"
2003     Dr. Lemaire, "Synthesis and Coordination Chemistry of Chelating Verdazyl Radicals;"
2002     Dr. Lorkowski, "Differential Gene Expression in Human Macrophages During Foam Cell Formation;"
2009     Dr Ma, “Gas Adsorption Applications of Porous Metal-organic Frameworks”;
2005     Dr. Maeda, "Synthesis and Properties of Multiply N-Confused Porphyrins"
2006     Dr. Pérez, "Hydrogen-bonded Synthetic Molecular Machines"
2004     Dr. Srivatsan, "Modeling Prebiotic Catalysis with Adenylated Polymeric Templates: Kinetic Characterization of Assisted Phosphate Ester Cleavage and Oxygen Insertion Reactions."
2007     Dr. Tao, "Nanoscale Surface Chemistry of Organic Layers on Solid Surfaces Formed through Weak Noncovalent Interactions and Strong Chemical Bonds"
2008     Dr. Tao, "Nanocrystal Assembly for Bottom-Up Plasmonic Materials"

This Prize is the only international programme designed to provide public and financially remunerative recognition to chemists at such early stages of their careers. A look at the title of the theses which deserved the Prize clearly shows that most of the winners enlarged their domain of competence, and many have now moved onto new and original research topics of their own.

The lecture of the papers they published in PAC www.iupac.org/publications/pac/83/1/?pass=b025bd05  largely proves the quality of their work.