The Centenary Prize is an award granted annually by the United Kingdom-based

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

(RSC) to up to three "outstanding chemists, who are also exceptional communicators, from overseas". The prize, established in 1947, and first awarded in 1949, by the RSC's forerunner, the

Chemical Society The Chemical Society was a scientific society formed in 1841 (then named the Chemical Society of London) by 77 scientists as a result of increased interest in scientific matters. Chemist Robert Warington was the driving force behind its creation. ...

, is named after the centenary of that organisation's founding, in 1841. Winners are given a £5000 cash prize, a medal and a certificate, and undertake a lecture tour of the UK.

Winners

* 2021 Bin Liu,

Jean-Luc Brédas Jean-Luc Brédas is an American chemist, working at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was born in Fraire, Belgium, on 23 May 1954. He received his PhD from the University of Namur, Belgium, in 1979. In 1988, he was appointed Professor at ...

Douglas Stephan Douglas Wade Stephan is professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto, a post he has held since 2008. Education Stephan was educated at McMaster University where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1976 and the University o ...

* 2020 Eric Anslyn, Teri W. Odom,

James Tour James Mitchell Tour (born 1959) is an American chemist and nanotechnologist. He is a Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering, and Professor of Computer Science at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Tour is a to ...

* 2019 Laura Kiessling, David MacMillan, Roberta Sessoli * 2018 Jacqueline Barton, John Hartwig, Richard Kaner * 2017 Odile Eisenstein, William J. Evans, Ben Feringa * 2016 Kenneth Suslick,

R. J. Dwayne Miller R. J. Dwayne Miller is a Canadian chemist and a professor at the University of Toronto. His focus is in physical chemistry and biophysics. He is most widely known for his work in ultrafast laser science, time-resolved spectroscopy, and the ...

Michael Grätzel Michael Grätzel (born 11 May 1944, in Dorfchemnitz, Saxony, Germany) is a professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where he directs the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces. He pioneered research on energy and electron t ...

* 2015 Chad Mirkin, Geoffrey Ozin, Jean-Marie Tarascon, * 2014 Eiichi Nakamura, Fraser Stoddart, Karen L. Wooley * 2013 Robert H. Crabtree, Richard Silverman, Chi-Ming Che * 2012 Craig Hawker, Timothy M. Swager, * 2011 G. Marius Clore,

Jonathan Sessler Jonathan Sessler (born 20 May 1956 in Urbana, Illinois) is a professor of chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin. He is notable for his pioneering work on expanded porphyrins and their applications to biology and medicine. He is a c ...

, R. Graham Cooks * 2010

Avelino Corma Canos Avelino Corma Canós (born December 15, 1951) is a Spanish chemist distinguished for his world-leading work on heterogeneous catalysis. He received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the Universidad de Valencia (1967-1973) and a Ph.D. ...

, Stephen Lippard, Omar Yaghi **the 2009/2010 lectures were delivered by:

Michel Che Michel Che (29 December 1941 – 7 August 2019) was a French chemist who completed his doctorate ( EPR study of titanium dioxide) in 1968 at the University of Lyon and studied as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University (1969–71). He was app ...

, John Katzenellenbogen,

Leonard Francis Lindoy Leonard Francis Lindoy, FAA, is an Australian chemist with interests in macrocyclic chemistry and metallo- supramolecular chemistry, and an Emeritus Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Sydney and James Cook University. He mo ...

* 2009

Aaron Ciechanover Aaron Ciechanover ( ; he, אהרן צ'חנובר; born October 1, 1947) is an Israeli biologist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for characterizing the method that cells use to degrade and recycle proteins using ubiquitin. Biography Early ...

, , * 2008 , Masakatsu Shibasaki, Achim Müller * 2007

Trygve Helgaker Trygve Helgaker (born August 11, 1953, in Porsgrunn, Norway) is professor of chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Norway. He is a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, 2005. He has written more th ...

, Don Tilley, * 2006

Stephen J. Benkovic Stephen James Benkovic (born April 20, 1938) is an American chemist. He is Evan Pugh Professor and Eberly Chair in Chemistry at Penn State University. His research has focused on mechanistic enzymology and the discovery of enzyme inhibitors. He ...

, , Ilya I. Moiseev * 2005

Goverdhan Mehta Goverdhan Mehta FNA, FASc, FTWAS, FRS, FRSC (born 26 June 1943) is an Indian researcher and scientist. Career Mehta received his BSc and MSc from the BITS Pilani and PhD from Pune University. His post-doctoral research was at the Michig ...

Vivian Wing-Wah Yam Professor Vivian Yam Wing-wah (born 10 February 1963) CSci, CChem, FRSC, is a Hong Kong chemist. The youngest member to be elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (as of 2013), she was a 2011 L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science la ...

Royce W. Murray Royce W. Murray (January 9, 1937 – July 6, 2022) was an American chemist and chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests were focused on electrochemistry, molecular designs, and sensors. He pu ...

* 2004 Robert Grubbs, , * 2003

Akkihebbal Ravishankara Akkihebbal Ramaiah (Ravi) Ravishankara ForMemRS FAAAS FRSC One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: is a scientist specializing in Chemistry and Atmospheric Sciences, and University Disti ...

Edward I. Solomon Edward I. Solomon (born 1946) is the Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University. He is an elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Scienc ...

Alois Fürstner Alois Fürstner (born 23 July 1962) is an Austrian chemist. He is director of Organometallic Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim, Germany. He has been awarded the Leibniz Prize (1999), the Royal Society of Chemi ...

* 2002

Manfred T. Reetz Manfred Theodor Reetz (born 13 August 1943) is a German chemist and professor of organic chemistry, who served as director of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research from 1991 until 2011. His research focuses on directed evolution, enzymes in o ...

, ,

Amos B. Smith Amos B. Smith III (born August 26, 1944) is an American chemist. Biography He is most notable for his research in the total synthesis of complex natural product, as well as the chemistry of mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrat ...

* 2001

Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou ( el, Κυριάκος Κ. Νικολάου; born July 5, 1946) is a Cypriot-American chemist known for his research in the area of natural products total synthesis. He is currently Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of ...

, Richard J. Saykally, Karl Weighardt * 2000 Maurice Brookhart, , C. N. R. Rao * 1999

Jean-Pierre Sauvage Jean-Pierre Sauvage (; born 21 October 1944) is a French coordination chemist working at Strasbourg University. He graduated from the National School of Chemistry of Strasbourg (now known as ECPM Strasbourg), in 1967. He has specialized in s ...

, Henri Kagan, Robin Hochstrasser * 1998

Robert F. Curl Robert Floyd Curl Jr. (August 23, 1933 – July 3, 2022) was an American chemist who was Pitzer–Schlumberger Professor of Natural Sciences and Professor of Chemistry at Rice University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for ...

, Marion Frederick Hawthorne, * 1997 Richard Zare,

Larry E. Overman Larry E. Overman is Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. He was born in Chicago in 1943. Overman obtained a B.A. degree from Earlham College in 1965, and he completed his Ph.D. in chemistry from the Unive ...

, Arndt Simon * 1996 ,

Helmut Ringsdorf Helmut Ringsdorf (30 July 1929 – 20 March 2023) was a German polymer chemist. His work promoted cross-disciplinary discussions and collaborations in the field of polymer chemistry, biology, physics and medicine. Ringsdorf's major research w ...

, Tobin J. Marks * 1995 Clayton H. Heathcock,

Vincenzo Balzani Vincenzo Balzani (born 15 November 1936 in Forlimpopoli, Italy) is an Italian chemist, now emeritus professor at the University of Bologna. Career He has spent most of his professional life at the “Giacomo Ciamician” Department of Chemist ...

, Graham R. Fleming * 1994

Malcolm H. Chisholm Malcolm Harold Chisholm (15 October 1945 – 20 November 2015) was a British inorganic chemist who worked mainly in North America, a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Distinguished University Professor of Mathematical and Physica ...

, A. Ian Scott, * 1993

Alexander Pines Alexander Pines (born June 22, 1945) is an American chemist. He is the Glenn T. Seaborg Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School, University of California, Berke ...

, Barry Sharpless, * 1992 Leo A. Paquette,

Alan Sargeson Alan McLeod Sargeson FAA FRS (30 October 1930 – 29 December 2008) was an Australian inorganic chemist. Education and early life Sargeson was born at Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. He was educated at the University of Sydney and rece ...

Henry F. Schaefer Henry Frederick "Fritz" Schaefer III (born June 8, 1944) is a computational and theoretical chemist. He is one of the most highly cited chemists in the world, with a Thomson Reuters H-Index of 121 as of 2020. He is the Graham Perdue Professor of ...

* 1991 ,

Athelstan Beckwith Athelstan Laurence Johnson Beckwith AO, FRS (20 February 1930 – 15 May 2010) was an Australian chemist. He was a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Life He earned a BSc, from the University of Western Australia in 1952, and DPhi ...

, * 1990 Richard R. Schrock, Dieter Seebach, Noel S. Hush * 1989 ,

Marc Julia Marc Julia (23 October 1922 – 29 June 2010) was a French chemist and the winner of the 1990 CNRS Gold Medal in chemistry. He discovered the Julia olefination reaction in 1973. Biography Julia was born in 1922 in Paris as son of the renowned m ...

, Endel Lippmaa * 1988 Rudolph A. Marcus, Ryōji Noyori, Warren R. Roper * 1987 Allen J. Bard, , Christopher T. Walsh * 1986 Robert Bruce Merrifield, Stuart A. Rice, Alan H. Cowley * 1985

Gerhard Ertl Gerhard Ertl (; born 10 October 1936) is a German physicist and a Professor emeritus at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin, Germany. Ertl's research laid the foundation of modern s ...

, ,

Herbert W. Roesky Herbert Roesky (born 6 November 1935) is an internationally renowned German Inorganic chemistry, inorganic chemist. Biography Professor Herbert W. Roesky was born in 1935 in Laukischken. He obtained his doctorate from Göttingen and worked at DuP ...

* 1984 Harry B. Gray, Meir Lahav, Benjamin Widom * 1983

Gábor A. Somorjai Gabor A. Somorjai (born May 4, 1935) is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a leading researcher in the field of surface chemistry and catalysis, especially the catalytic effects of metal surfaces on gas-ph ...

, Virgil Boekelheide, * 1982

Alan MacDiarmid Alan Graham MacDiarmid, ONZ FRS (14 April 1927 – 7 February 2007) was a New Zealand-born American chemist, and one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000. Early life and education MacDiarmid was born in Masterton, Ne ...

, , Albert I. Meyers * 1981 Barry Trost, Earl Muetterties, Takeshi Oka * 1980 James Ibers,

Jean-Marie Lehn Jean-Marie Lehn (born 30 September 1939) is a French chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen in 1987 for his synthesis of cryptands. Lehn was an early innovator in the field of supramole ...

, ,

Jürgen Troe Hans-Jürgen Troe (born 4 August 1940) is a German physicist from the University of Göttingen. He was awarded the status of Fellow in the American Physical Society, after he was nominated by his Division of Chemical Physics in 2009, for "exper ...

* 1979 Richard H. Holm, ,

Henry Taube Henry Taube, (November 30, 1915 – November 16, 2005) was a Canadian-born American chemist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his work in the mechanisms of electron-transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes." He ...

* 1978

Heinz Gerischer Heinz Gerischer (31 March 1919 – 14 September 1994) was a German scientist. He was the thesis advisor of future Nobel laureate Gerhard Ertl. The ''Heinz Gerischer Award'' of the European section of The Electrochemical Society is named in his ...

, Koji Nakanishi, * 1977

Jack D. Dunitz Jack David Dunitz FRS (29 March 1923 – 12 September 2021) was a British chemist and widely known chemical crystallographer. He was Professor of Chemical Crystallography at the ETH Zurich from 1957 until his official retirement in 1990. He he ...

, George A. Olah, Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer * 1976

Dudley R. Herschbach Dudley Robert Herschbach (born June 18, 1932) is an American chemist at Harvard University. He won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Yuan T. Lee and John C. Polanyi "for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elemen ...

, Alfred Edward Ringwood, Karel Wiesner * 1975

Donald J. Cram Donald James Cram (April 22, 1919 – June 17, 2001) was an American chemist who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jean-Marie Lehn and Charles J. Pedersen "for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific inte ...

, John B. Goodenough, Willis H. Flygare * 1974 Gilbert Stork,

Ernst Otto Fischer Ernst Otto Fischer (; 10 November 1918 – 23 July 2007) was a German chemist who won the Nobel Prize for pioneering work in the area of organometallic chemistry. Early life He was born in Solln, a borough of Munich. His parents were Karl T. F ...

Roald Hoffmann Roald Hoffmann (born Roald Safran; July 18, 1937) is a Polish-American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He has also published plays and poetry. He is the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters, Emeritus, at ...

* 1973 Duilio Arigoni, Frank Albert Cotton, * 1972 John Anthony Pople,

Jan Peter Toennies Jan Peter Toennies (born 3 May 1930) is an American scientist and former director of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization. Early life and education He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to German immigrant parents. He ...

, William Summer Johnson * 1971

Ronald Breslow Ronald Charles David Breslow (March 14, 1931 – October 25, 2017) was an American chemist from Rahway, New Jersey. He was University Professor at Columbia University, where he was based in the Department of Chemistry and affiliated with the Dep ...

William Lipscomb William Nunn Lipscomb Jr. (December 9, 1919April 14, 2011) was a Nobel Prize-winning American inorganic and organic chemist working in nuclear magnetic resonance, theoretical chemistry, boron chemistry, and biochemistry. Biography Overview ...

* 1970 Elias J. Corey,

Edgar Bright Wilson Edgar Bright Wilson Jr. (December 18, 1908 – July 12, 1992) was an American chemist. Wilson was a prominent and accomplished chemist and teacher, recipient of the National Medal of Science in 1975, Guggenheim Fellowships in 1949 and 1970, the ...

* 1969 Albert Eschenmoser * 1968 Erwin Wilhelm Müller,

Paul Doughty Bartlett Paul Doughty Bartlett (August 14, 1907 – October 11, 1997) was an American chemist. Bartlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and grew up in Indianapolis. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1928. After his graduation from Harvard with ...

* 1967 Saul Winstein * 1966 , * 1965 , Wiktor Kemula,

John D. Roberts John Dombrowski Roberts (June 8, 1918 – October 29, 2016) was an American chemist. He made contributions to the integration of physical chemistry, spectroscopy, and organic chemistry for the understanding of chemical reaction rates. Another ...

* 1964 John C. Polanyi, Feodor Lynen * 1963

Carl Djerassi Carl Djerassi (October 29, 1923 – January 30, 2015) was an Austrian-born Bulgarian-American pharmaceutical chemist, novelist, playwright and co-founder of Djerassi Resident Artists Program with Diane Wood Middlebrook. He is best known for his ...

* 1962 Frank Westheimer, Richard Kuhn * 1961 George B. Kistiakowsky, * 1960

Rolf Huisgen Rolf Huisgen (; 13 June 1920 – 26 March 2020) was a German chemist. His importance in synthetic organic chemistry extends to the enormous influence he had in post-war chemistry departments in Germany and Austria, due to a large number of his ...

, * 1959 ,

Nils Andreas Sørensen Nils Andreas Sørensen (8 December 1909 – 8 June 1987) was a Norwegian chemist and professor of organic chemistry at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, Norwegian Technical College in Trondheim. Early life and education Nils Andreas Sør ...

, Michael Heidelberger * 1958

Gerhard Herzberg Gerhard Heinrich Friedrich Otto Julius Herzberg, (; December 25, 1904 – March 3, 1999) was a German- Canadian pioneering physicist and physical chemist, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1971, "for his contributions to the knowle ...

, Klaus Clusius, Wilhelm Klemm * 1957 , Odd Hassel * 1956

Glenn T. Seaborg Glenn Theodore Seaborg (; April 19, 1912February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work i ...

* 1955

Melvin Calvin Melvin Ellis Calvin (April 8, 1912 – January 8, 1997) was an American biochemist known for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham, for which he was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He spent most of ...

Herbert C. Brown Herbert Charles Brown (May 22, 1912 – December 19, 2004) was an American chemist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with organoboranes. Life and career Brown was born Herbert Brovarnik in London, to Ukrainian Jewis ...

* 1954 * 1953

Arne Tiselius Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius (10 August 1902 – 29 October 1971) was a Swedish biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1948 "for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning ...

* 1952

Tadeusz Reichstein Tadeusz Reichstein (20 July 1897 – 1 August 1996) was a Polish-Swiss chemist and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (1950), which was awarded for his work on the isolation of cortisone. Early life Reichstein was born into a Pol ...

* 1951

Robert B. Woodward Robert Burns Woodward (April 10, 1917 – July 8, 1979) was an American organic chemist. He is considered by many to be the most preeminent synthetic organic chemist of the twentieth century, having made many key contributions to the subject, e ...

Kaj Ulrik Linderstrøm-Lang Kaj Ulrik Linderstrøm-Lang (29 November 1896 – 25 May 1959) was a Danish protein scientist, who was the director of the Carlsberg Laboratory from 1939 until his death. His most notable scientific contributions were the development of sundry phy ...

* 1950 * 1949

Vladimir Prelog Vladimir Prelog (23 July 1906 – 7 January 1998) was a Croatian-Swiss organic chemist who received the 1975 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research into the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. Prelog was born and grew up in ...

, ,

References

{{Royal Society of Chemistry Awards of the Royal Society of Chemistry 1947 establishments in England

Winners

See also

References