The next edition of the Science for the Future Solvay Prize, to occur in 2022, will mark the 100-year anniversary of the first Solvay Conference for Chemistry
Solvay today announced the jury for the fifth edition of its Science for the Future Solvay Prize, a €300,000 award given every two years to a scientist engaged in groundbreaking research that will shape tomorrow’s science and solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The Solvay Prize laureate will be announced on January 13 and the award ceremony will be live-streamed on March 29.
The prize winner will be selected by an independent jury of renowned scientists, which include two Nobel Prize laureates:
- Sven Lidin, president of the Solvay Prize jury, professor of inorganic chemistry at Lund University;
- Steven Chu, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997, former U.S. secretary of energy and professor at Stanford University;
- Ben Feringa, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2016, professor at the University of Groningen, former recipient of the 2015 Solvay Prize
- Susumu Kitagawa, winner of the 2017 Solvay Prize, professor at Kyoto University;
- Geraldine Lee Richmond, presidential chair in science and professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, nominated for U.S. under secretary of energy for science;
- Dame Carol Vivien Robinson, Professor of Chemistry and first director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery at Oxford University.
In 1922, the company’s founder, Ernest Solvay held the first scientific conference focused on chemistry, gathering many scientists who would later become Nobel Prize laureates, to discuss new theories in micro-physics in chemistry. The prize, which will be awarded in 2022, marks the 100-year anniversary of Ernest Solvay’s first chemistry conference.
“Solvay has a long history of promoting fundamental science, and the Solvay Prize continues this legacy,” said Patrick Maestro, member of the Académie des Technologies in France and scientific director of Solvay. “Science based innovation drives Solvay’s strategy today, and is one of Solvay’s key differentiators among its competitors."
About the Science for the Future Solvay Prize
Created in 2013, the Solvay Prize perpetuates Ernest Solvay’s lifelong passion and support for scientific research. It rewards a single recipient for fundamental contributions to chemistry with potential industrial impact.
The broad field of the prize covers chemistry in all its aspects, such as synthesis, materials science, soft matter, biophysics or biochemistry, chemical engineering, environmental sciences, or certain aspects of molecular biology.
Nominations are made by members of the scientific committee for chemistry and the advisory committee (past and present) of the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, participants to the Solvay Conferences on Chemistry, members of prestigious international scientific organizations and renowned chemists.
Past winners include (pictured from left to right):
- Professor Carolyn Bertozzi (USA) for her invention of bioorthogonal chemical reactions that can be performed in living cells and organisms, with potential significant breakthroughs in the treatment of numerous diseases, including cancer (2020);
- Professor Susumu Kitagawa (Japan), for his work in developing metal organic frameworks, a new class of materials with a range of potential future applications, including the capturing of polluting gases (2017);
- Professor Ben Feringa (Netherlands), for his groundbreaking research on molecular motors, a research field that paves the way to new therapeutic and technological applications with nanorobots (2015);
- Professor Peter G. Schultz (USA), for his work at the interface of chemistry and life sciences, with important implications for regenerative medicine, and the treatment of infectious disease, autoimmune disease and cancer (2013).
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About Solvay
Solvay is a science company whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 23,000 employees in 64 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements to reinvent progress. The Group seeks to create sustainable shared value for all, notably through its Solvay One Planet roadmap crafted around three pillars: protecting the climate, preserving resources and fostering a better life. The Group’s innovative solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable products found in homes, food and consumer goods, planes, cars, batteries, smart devices, health care applications, water and air purification systems. Founded in 1863, Solvay today ranks among the world’s top three companies for the vast majority of its activities and delivered net sales of €9 billion in 2020. Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels and Paris (SOLB). Learn more at www.solvay.com.
