Professor Stephen Liddle
Winner: 2020 Tilden Prize
University of Manchester
For extensive contributions to understanding the inorganic and organometallic chemistry of the f elements.
Celebrate Professor Stephen Liddle
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I vividly remember being shown beautiful blue crystals of a copper salt not long after going to secondary school and that had me hooked on chemistry right there and then.
Despite the fact we have had nuclear technologies for decades, we still know remarkably little about the basic chemistry and properties of actinide elements like uranium.
It is therefore essential that we understand the chemistry of uranium in greater detail, but historically investigations have been limited.
Professor Liddle’s research seeks to make uranium molecules under unusual conditions that prevent the element from staying in its ‘comfort-zone’ as it does in more routine studies. By doing this we can access the ‘hidden’ face of uranium and so learn how it interacts with elements from around the periodic table.
This could – and does – uncover new types of chemical bonding, reactivity, and novel magnetic phenomena, which broadens our knowledge and understanding. This improved platform of knowledge could ultimately help inspire new approaches to nuclear waste clean-up.
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