Interdisciplinary Prizes

2024 Interdisciplinary Prize Winner

Professor Tim Bugg, University of Warwick

Awarded for the discovery of bacterial enzymes for the degradation of lignin, and their application to the conversion of lignin to renewable chemicals.

To combat global warming, we must reduce our dependence on crude oil, which many of our plastics, materials, and industrial chemicals are made from. The 'biorefinery' concept – making fuels and chemicals from renewable plant biomass – is gaining global traction.

Professor Bugg's research group is working on one of the unsolved problems of the biorefinery: how to convert the aromatic polymer lignin into useful chemicals. Lignin is very hard to break down, but the group has discovered several new bacterial enzymes that can break down lignin and studied how these enzymes work at the molecular level. They have also engineered bacterial lignin-degrading bacteria such as soil microbe Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 to produce useful chemicals like vanillin (used in the food industry) and precursors to new bio-based plastics.

This research, along with the work of other research groups around the world, has established the feasibility of converting lignin using low-energy biochemical transformations into feedstock and high-value chemicals.

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2024 Interdisciplinary Prize Winner

Professor Judith Driscoll, University of Cambridge

Awarded for interdisciplinary work to realise unprecedented properties in a broad variety of functional oxide devices.

Professor Driscoll’s research investigates oxide thin film materials for new forms of computing and clean energy generation. These materials could hold the key to new forms of low-power brain-like computing or for achieving a clean energy source, a process that uses powerful superconducting magnets. These films may even be the key to splitting water into green hydrogen.

Oxide thin film materials have a wide range of properties and are also remarkably stable and non-toxic. However, unlocking their full potential requires precise engineering at the atomic level and a range of disciplines from chemistry to physics to engineering.

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2024 Interdisciplinary Prize Winner

Professor Sébastien Perrier, University of Warwick

Awarded for interdisciplinary research in the synthesis and applications of therapeutic materials.

Professor Perrier's work sits at the crossroads of chemistry, materials science, and biology, and aims to address pressing global health challenges. His research focuses on developing innovative materials made from polymers for various medical applications, including combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – a major threat to modern medicine – and advanced delivery systems for therapeutics, ranging from small molecules to RNA (Ribonucleic Acid).

Sébastien’s pioneering work explores how cells interact with these materials at the nanoscale. His research holds promise for breakthroughs in drug delivery systems, brain-targeted therapies, and antibacterial agents, hinting at a future where nanotechnology plays a vital role in healthcare. Sébastien's interdisciplinary approach extends beyond scientific achievements to training future generations of researchers. His diverse team includes chemists, biologists, engineers, and more and they work in a collaborative environment where everyone contributes to the team’s research.

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Year	Name	Institution	Citation
2023	Professor Serena Cussen FUU裸聊直播	University of Sheffield	Awarded for interdisciplinary and original contributions to the development of new functional materials for energy storage and in-depth study of their local structure and dynamics.
2023	Professor Nora de Leeuw CChem FUU裸聊直播	University of Leeds	Awarded for the development and application of computational chemistry to enable atomic-level insights into biomedical materials for in vivo and nature-inspired catalytic systems.
2023	Professor Nicholas Long CChem FUU裸聊直播	Imperial College London	Awarded for innovative synthetic chemistry applied to the fields of functional materials and biomedical imaging.
2022	Professor Michael George CChem FUU裸聊直播	The University of Nottingham	Awarded for pioneering innovations in flow chemistry, reactor engineering and reaction monitoring for continuous chemical processing.
2022	Professor Jason Micklefield FUU裸聊直播	The University of Manchester	Awarded for innovative research spanning organic chemistry to molecular genetics, leading to the discovery, characterisation, and engineering of many novel enzymes.
2022	Professor Nguyen T. K. Thanh FUU裸聊直播	University College London	Awarded for outstanding contributions to interdisciplinary research on fundamental understanding of chemical syntheses, physical studies of plasmonic and magnetic nanomaterials for biomedical applications.
2021	Professor Andrew Cooper	University of Liverpool	Awarded for combining autonomous robotics, artificial intelligence and chemistry to discover materials with new properties.
2021	Professor Eleanor Schofield	Mary Rose Trust	Awarded for contributions to understanding degradation processes in archaeological materials, cultural heritage science and conservation.
2020	Professor Chris Abell	University of Cambridge	Awarded for pioneering work on fragment-based drug discovery and microfluidic microdroplets.
2020	Professor Iain McCulloch	Imperial College London and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology	Awarded for advances in the design, synthesis and innovative application of functional materials in optics, electronics, and energy.
2020	Professor Emma Raven	University of Bristol	Awarded for seminal contributions to understanding the roles of heme in biology.
2019	Professor Mark Bradley	University of Edinburgh	Awarded for highly influential and pioneering work in the area of optical medical imaging.
2019	Professor Christopher Schofield	University of Oxford	Awarded for pioneering work on the mechanisms of activity and resistance to antibiotics.
2019	Professor Nigel Scrutton	The University of Manchester	Awarded for outstanding contributions to enzyme and photoreceptor biophysics and catalysis.
2018	Professor Leroy Cronin	University of Glasgow	Awarded for work exploring complex chemical systems and digitising chemistry using artificial intelligence.
2018	Dr Judy Hirst	University of Cambridge	Awarded for combining structural, biochemical and physical chemical techniques to pioneer studies of energy conversion in complex redox enzymes.
2018	Professor Barrie Wilkinson	John Innes Centre	Awarded for combining molecular biology, enzymology and chemistry in the engineering of biosynthetic pathways to microbial metabolites.
2017	Professor Greg Challis	University of Warwick	Awarded for outstanding contributions to the discovery and mechanistic illumination of novel natural product biosynthetic enzymes.
2017	Professor Melinda Duer	University of Cambridge	Awarded for solid-state NMR spectroscopy and computational methods applied to the elucidation of structure and molecular interactions in calcified tissues.
2017	Professor Fiona Meldrum	University of Leeds	Awarded for contributions to understanding biomineralization processes and exploiting bio-inspired strategies to control the structure and properties of crystalline materials.
2016	Professor Jörg Feldmann	University of Aberdeen	Awarded for the development of analytical systems to unravel biological metal metabolites.
2016	Professor Peter Hore	University of Oxford	Awarded for his outstanding contributions to understanding biological structure and function using the phenomenon of spin.
2016	Professor Dek Woolfson	University of Bristol	Awarded for his contributions to understanding sequence-to-structure relationships in natural proteins, and using these to design entirely new protein folds and assemblies.
2015	Professor Elaine Holmes	Imperial College London	Awarded for outstanding contributions to metabolic phenotyping and systems biology leading to novel biomarkers and mechanistic insights into toxicity and disease.
2015	Professor Sarah (Sally) Price	University College London	Awarded for transforming our understanding of the subtle differences in the crystalline organic solid state energy landscape and discovering new physical forms of organic molecules.
2015	Professor Anthony Watts	University of Oxford	Awarded for pioneering new solid state NMR techniques that have revealed the functional significance of conformational dynamics in biomembrane complexes of ligands and small molecules.
2014	Professor Steven Armes	The University of Sheffield	Awarded for his significant contribution to our current understanding of micrometeorites and the behaviour of cosmic dust particles.
2014	Professor Sabine Flitsch	University of Manchester	Awarded for her significant contributions in biological chemistry, in particular in carbohydrate chemistry and glycobiology.
2014	Professor Richard Pancost	University of Bristol	Awarded for the use of analytical chemistry in the identification and stable isotope characterisation of lipid biomarkers to questions related to global environmental change.
2013	Professor James Barber	Imperial College London	Awarded for his elucidation of the mechanism of water oxidation in higher plants, and his application of natural photosynthetic principles to the development of artificial photosynthetic systems, open up new avenues in solar energy research.
2013	Professor Jane Clarke	University of Cambridge	Awarded for her pioneering work in the application of atomic force microscopy (AMF) to study folding in families of proteins.
2012	Professor Hagan Bayley	University of Oxford	Awarded for his seminal studies of engineered protein pores offering insight into the basis of pore assembly and function, and enabling diverse applications, including single-molecule sensing and the construction of artificial tissues.
2011	Carol Robinson	University of Oxford	Award for her development of a new area of research, gas-phase structural biology, using highly refined mass spectrometry techniques.
2010	Alexei Kornyshev	Imperial College London	Awarded for his many outstanding contributions at the interfaces of chemistry with both physics and with biology.
2010	Barry Potter	University of Bath	Awarded for his innovative application of techniques in synthetic organic chemistry to challenges in biology and medicine. His broad ranging studies have addressed both fundamental and applied challenges.
2009	Tom Brown	University of Southampton	Awarded for his many innovative contributions to nucleic acid chemistry and its application to problems at the chemistry biology interface.
2009	Bonnie Ann Wallace	Birkbeck College, University of London	Awarded for her work in developing applications of synchrotron radiation circular dichroism spectroscopy as a tool in chemistry, structural genomics, biochemistry and chemical biology.
2008	Not awarded this year
2007	Professor David Klenerman	University of Cambridge	Awarded for original applications in the life sciences of new biophysical methods based on laser fluorescence spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy.
2007	Professor Jeremy Nicholson	Imperial College London	Awarded for his contributions to chemical biology, particularly mechanistic insights into disease and toxicity through the development of the field of metabonomics.
2006	Professor J W Goodby	University of York	Awarded for his contributions to the understanding of ferroelectricity in liquid crystals, alignment mechanisms in devices and deducing novel structures, especially in frustrated phases.
2006	Professor D Lilley	University of Dundee	Awarded for his chemical and mechanistic insight in solving problems in chemical biology, particularly his work on RNA folding and resulting catalytic activity.
2005	Professor Fraser A Armstrong	University of Oxford	Awarded for pioneering interdisciplinary research that has led to the resolution of some of the complicated catalytic reactions and active-site transformations of hydrogenases - enzymes of great importance for hydrogen energy technology.
2005	Professor Steven M Howdle	University of Nottingham	Awarded for his contributions to the development of polymers and bioactive materials using supercritical fluids.
2005	Mr Raymond White	National Gallery, London	Awarded for groundbreaking contributions to the chemical investigation of natural products used in artworks and cultural heritage objects in support of restoration practices and the reconstruction of past technologies.
2004	Professor Douglas B Kell	University of Manchester	Awarded for his contributions to bioanalytical science and the application of molecular and numerical approaches to the study of biological systems.
2004	Professor David A Leigh	University of Edinburgh	Awarded for his work on the development of synthetic molecular motors and machines.
2003	Professor Richard P Evershed	University of Bristol	Awarded for his international recognition as an analytical organic geochemist and the leading exponent of biomolecular archaeology who has revolutionized aspects of archaeological science.
2003	Professor David W Young	University of Sussex	Awarded for his brilliant contributions to the organic chemistry of enzymes of importance in biology and medicine over many years.
2002	P J Bruce
2002	S Neidle
2001	Steve K Chapman	University of Edinburgh	Awarded for research into the structure, function and mechanism of action of flavocytochromes, particularly flavocytochrome b2 and cytochrome P450.
2001	W Jim Feast	Durham University	Awarded for the development of polymer chemistry to enable processible semiconducting polymers which can be exploited in a wide range of semiconductor device applications.
2000	Martyn Poliakoff	University of Nottingham	Awarded for research into the applications of supercritical fluids in chemistry.
2000	Andrew J Thomson	University of East Anglia	Awarded for the application of magnetic and optical spectroscopic methods to elucidate the functional roles of transition metals in biology.
1999	Professor Chris M Dobson	University of Oxford	Awarded for research at the interface of chemistry with biology and medicine.
1999	Professor Stephen Mann	University of Bristol	Awarded for research into the interface between biomineralisation and materials chemistry.
1999	Professor Christopher Viney	Heriot-Watt University	Awarded for research into biomolecular materials, polymers and liquid crystals.
1998	C Richard A Catlow	The Royal Institution	Awarded for synthetic, structural and computational studies including many of industrial importance.
1998	Chris T Evans	Merlin Ventures	Awarded for the development of biotechnology for the production of usefulmaterials and essential services.
1997	Ruth Duncan	School of Pharmacy, London	Awarded for research and development of Polymeric Anticancer Agent - from Laboratory to Clinic.
1997	Peter J Sarre	University of Nottingham	Awarded for contributions to astrophysical chemistry.
1996	Peter Gregory	Zeneca Specialists	Awarded for contributions to the area of high technology applications of organic colourants.
1995	David Parker	Durham University	Awarded for contributions in the area of tailored complexes and conjugates for imaging and therapy.
1994	James R Maxwell	University of Bristol	Awarded for the use of chemistry in exploring geology.
1993	J John Holbrook	University of Bristol	Awarded for the redesign of enzymes for the synthesis of homochiral molecules.
1992	Martin R Bryce	Durham University	Awarded for research into the synthesis of organic materials with unusual solid state properties.
1992	Dennis Chapman	Royal Free Hospital, School of Medicine	Awarded for research into biomembranes and biomaterials.
1991	Richard H Friend	University of Cambridge	Awarded for research into the electronic properties of organic polymers and related materials.
1991	Malcolm F G Stevens	Aston University	Awarded for research and development of anticancer drugs - from the laboratory bench to the clinic.
1990	John A Pyle	University of Cambridge	Awarded for research into atmospheric chemistry.
1989	Laurie J King	University of Surrey	Awarded for research into toxicology.
1988	Brian J Briscoe	Imperial College London	Awardedfor contributions to interface science and engineering, material science and environmental sensors
1987	Laurie D Hall	University of Cambridge	Awarded for research and development of NMR as a structural tool for carbohydrate chemistry.
1987	John E Harris	National Power	Awarded for research into corrosion.
1986	H Allen O Hill	University of Oxford	Awarded for research into bioinorganic chemistry, electrochemistry and enzyme reactions.
1986	Michael Jarman	Institute of Cancer Research	Awarded for research into drug metabolism.

Re-thinking recognition: Science prizes for the modern world

This report is the result of an independent review of our recognition programmes. Our aim in commissioning this review was to ensure that our recognition portfolio continues to deliver the maximum impact for chemical scientists, chemistry and society.

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2024 Interdisciplinary Prize Winner

2024 Interdisciplinary Prize Winner

2024 Interdisciplinary Prize Winner

Prizes & funding

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