The Centenary Prize is an award granted annually by the United Kingdom-based Royal Society of Chemistry (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 * 2020 Eric Anslyn,

Teri W. Odom Teri W. Odom is an American chemist and materials scientist. She is the chair of the chemistry department, the Joan Husting Madden and William H. Madden, Jr. Professor of Chemistry, and a professor of materials science and engineering at Northw ...

, James Tour * 2019 Laura Kiessling,

David MacMillan Sir David William Cross MacMillan (born 16 March 1968) is a Scottish chemist and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, where he was also the chair of the Department of Chemistry from 20 ...

Roberta Sessoli Roberta Sessoli is Professor of General and Inorganic chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry "Hugo Schiff, Ugo Schiff" at the University of Florence. Sessoli's research has had significant impact upon the field of molecular m ...

* 2018

Jacqueline Barton Jacqueline K. Barton (born May 7, 1952 New York City, NY), is an American chemist. She worked as a Professor of Chemistry at Hunter College (1980–82), and at Columbia University (1983–89) before joining the California Institute of Technology ...

, John Hartwig, Richard Kaner * 2017 Odile Eisenstein, William J. Evans,

Ben Feringa Bernard Lucas Feringa (, born 18 May 1951) is a Dutch synthetic organic chemist, specializing in molecular nanotechnology and homogeneous catalysis. He is the Jacobus van 't Hoff Distinguished Professor of Molecular Sciences, at the Strating ...

* 2016 Kenneth Suslick,

R. J. Dwayne Miller R. J. Dwayne Miller is a Canadians, 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 ultrashort pulse, ultrafast laser science, time-resol ...

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 tra ...

* 2015 Chad Mirkin,

Geoffrey Ozin Geoffrey Alan Stuart Ozin Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, FRSC is a British chemist, currently Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Materials Chemistry and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Toronto. Ozin is the recipient ...

Jean-Marie Tarascon Jean-Marie Tarascon FRSC (born September 21, 1953) is Professor of Chemistry at the Collège de France in Paris and Director of the French Research Network on Electrochemical Energy Storage (RS2E). Education Tarascon was educated at the University ...

, * 2014 Eiichi Nakamura, Fraser Stoddart, Karen L. Wooley * 2013

Robert H. Crabtree Robert Howard Crabtree (born 17 April 1948) is a British-American chemist. He is serving as Conkey P. Whitehead Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Yale University in the United States. He is a naturalized citizen of the United States. Crabtree ...

, Richard Silverman, Chi-Ming Che * 2012

Craig Hawker Craig Jon Hawker (born 11 January 1964) is an Australian-born chemist. His research has focused on the interface between organic and polymer chemistry, with emphasis on the design, synthesis, and application of well-defined macromolecular stru ...

, 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 co-fo ...

, R. Graham Cooks * 2010 Avelino Corma Canos, Stephen Lippard,

Omar Yaghi Omar M. Yaghi ( ar, عمر مونّس ياغي; born February 9, 1965) is the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute, and ...

**the 2009/2010 lectures were delivered by: Michel Che, John Katzenellenbogen, Leonard Francis Lindoy * 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, , 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, Royce W. Murray * 2004

Robert Grubbs Robert Howard Grubbs ForMemRS (February 27, 1942 – December 19, 2021) was an American chemist and the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He was a co-recipient o ...

, , * 2003 Akkihebbal Ravishankara, Edward I. Solomon, Alois Fürstner * 2002 Manfred T. Reetz, , Amos B. Smith * 2001 Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou, Richard J. Saykally, Karl Weighardt * 2000

Maurice Brookhart Maurice S. Brookhart (born 1942) is an American chemist, and professor of chemistry at the University of Houston since 2015. Brookhart received his bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1964. He received his PhD in 1968 from the U ...

, ,

C. N. R. Rao Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao BR, (born 30 June 1934), is an Indian chemist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry. He has honorary doctorates from 84 universities from around the world and has authored around 1,77 ...

* 1999 Jean-Pierre Sauvage,

Henri Kagan Henri Boris Kagan (born 15 December 1930) is currently an emeritus professor at the Université Paris-Sud in France. He is widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of asymmetric catalysis. His discoveries have had far-reaching impacts on the p ...

, Robin Hochstrasser * 1998 Robert F. Curl, Marion Frederick Hawthorne, * 1997

Richard Zare Richard Neil Zare (born November 19, 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio) is the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science and a Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University. Throughout his career, Zare has made a considerable impact in physical ...

, Larry E. Overman, Arndt Simon * 1996 , Helmut Ringsdorf, 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 Chemistr ...

, Graham R. Fleming * 1994 Malcolm H. Chisholm, 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, Henry F. Schaefer * 1991 , Athelstan Beckwith, * 1990 Richard R. Schrock,

Dieter Seebach Dieter Seebach is a German chemist known for his synthesis of biopolymers and dendrimers, and for his contributions to stereochemistry. He was born on 31 October 1937 in Karlsruhe. He studied chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) under th ...

, 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 Endel Lippmaa (15 September 1930 – 30 July 2015) was an Estonian academic, politician, founder and chairman of the Science Council of the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics best known for his work in uncovering crucial docu ...

* 1988

Rudolph A. Marcus Rudolph Arthur Marcus (born July 21, 1923) is a Canadian-born chemist who received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems". Marcus theory, named after him, provid ...

Ryōji Noyori is a Japanese chemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001, Noyori shared a half of the prize with William S. Knowles for the study of chirally catalyzed hydrogenations; the second half of the prize went to K. Barry Sharpless for his ...

Warren R. Roper Warren Richard Roper FRS FRSNZ FNZIC (born 1938) is a New Zealand chemist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Auckland. Roper was educated at Nelson College from 1952 to 1956, and was dux in his final year. He then studied chemistry a ...

* 1987

Allen J. Bard Allen Joseph Bard (born December 18, 1933) is an American chemist. He is the Hackerman-Welch Regents Chair Professor and director of the Center for Electrochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Bard is considered a "father of modern el ...

, ,

Christopher T. Walsh Christopher T. Walsh NAS IoM AAA&S AAM is a Hamilton Kuhn professor of biological chemistry and pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on enzymes and enzyme inhibition, and most recently he is focused on the problem of a ...

* 1986

Robert Bruce Merrifield Robert Bruce Merrifield (July 15, 1921 – May 14, 2006) was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1984 for the invention of solid phase peptide synthesis. Early life He was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on 15 July 1921, t ...

, 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 su ...

, , Herbert W. Roesky * 1984

Harry B. Gray Harry Barkus Gray (born November 14, 1935) is the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry at California Institute of Technology. Career Gray received his B.S. in chemistry from Western Kentucky University in 1957. He began his work in inorgan ...

Meir Lahav Meir Lahav ( he, מאיר להב, born 1936 in Sofia, Bulgaria) is an Israeli chemist and materials scientist and emeritus professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Lahav emigrated to Israel in 1948. He studied at the Hebrew University of J ...

Benjamin Widom Benjamin Widom (born 13 October 1927) is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University. His research interests include physical chemistry and statistical mechanics. In 1998, Widom was awarded the Boltzmann Medal "for his illumin ...

* 1983 Gábor A. Somorjai,

Virgil Boekelheide Virgil Boekelheide (28 July 1919 – 24 September 2003) was an American organic chemist and a professor in the department of chemistry at the University of Oregon. He is known for his work on aromatic compounds, particularly cyclophanes, and a ...

, * 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, New ...

, , Albert I. Meyers * 1981

Barry Trost Barry M. Trost (born June 13, 1941, in Philadelphia) is an American chemist who is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor Emeritus in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. The Tsuji-Trost reaction and the Trost ligand are ...

, Earl Muetterties, Takeshi Oka * 1980 James Ibers, Jean-Marie Lehn, , Jürgen Troe * 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 h ...

Koji Nakanishi was a Japanese chemist who studied bioorganic chemistry and natural products. He served as Centennial Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department at Columbia University. Early life Nakanishi was born in Hong Kong on May 11, 192 ...

, * 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 Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer (January 6, 1914 – December 26, 1997) was an American physical and theoretical chemist, educator, and university president. He was described as "one of the most influential physical chemists of his era" whose work "s ...

* 1976 Dudley R. Herschbach, Alfred Edward Ringwood,

Karel Wiesner Karel František Wiesner (November 25, 1919 – November 28, 1986) was a Canadian chemist of Czech origin known for his contributions to the chemistry of natural products, notably aconitum alkaloids and digitalis glycosides. Early life and care ...

* 1975 Donald J. Cram,

John B. Goodenough John Bannister Goodenough ( ; born July 25, 1922) is an American materials scientist, a solid-state physicist, and a Nobel laureate in chemistry. He is a professor of Mechanical, Materials Science, and Electrical Engineering at the Universit ...

, Willis H. Flygare * 1974

Gilbert Stork Gilbert Stork (December 31, 1921 – October 21, 2017) was an organic chemist. For a quarter of a century he was the Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Columbia University. He is known for making significant contributions to the t ...

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. Fi ...

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 Duilio Arigoni (6 December 1928 – 10 June 2020) was a Swiss chemist and Emeritus Professor at ETH Zurich. He worked on the biosynthetic pathways of many organic natural substances. Birth and education Born in Lugano, Switzerland, Arigoni ...

, Frank Albert Cotton, * 1972

John Anthony Pople Sir John Anthony Pople (31 October 1925 – 15 March 2004) was a British theoretical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn in 1998 for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry. Early ...

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 i ...

William Summer Johnson William Summer Johnson (February 24, 1913 – August 19, 1995) was an American chemist and teacher. From 1940 to 1958, Johnson was an instructor and then professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1958, he moved to Stanford Universi ...

* 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 De ...

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 Albert Jakob Eschenmoser (born 5 August 1925) is a Swiss organic chemist, best known for his work on the synthesis of complex heterocyclic natural compounds, most notably vitamin B12. In addition to his significant contributions to the field of ...

* 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 John Charles Polanyi ( hu, Polányi János Károly; born 23 January 1929) is a German-born Canadian chemist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in chemical kinetics. Polanyi was born into the prominent Hungari ...

Feodor Lynen Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen (; 6 April 19116 August 1979) was a German biochemist. In 1964 he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Konrad Bloch for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of cholesterol an ...

* 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 Richard Johann Kuhn (; 3 December 1900 – 1 August 1967) was an Austrian-German biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1938 "for his work on carotenoids and vitamins". Biography Early life Kuhn was born in Vienna, Austr ...

* 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, 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 knowledge ...

Klaus Clusius Klaus Paul Alfred Clusius (19 March 1903 – 28 May 1963) was a German physical chemist from Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club; he worked on isotope ...

Wilhelm Klemm Wilhelm Karl Klemm (5 January 1896 – 24 October 1985) was an inorganic and physical chemist. Klemm did extensive work on intermetallic compounds, rare earth metals, transition elements and compounds involving oxygen and fluorine. He and He ...

* 1957 ,

Odd Hassel Odd Hassel (17 May 1897 – 11 May 1981) was a Norwegian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate. Biography Hassel was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. His parents were Ernst Hassel (1848–1905), a gynaecologist, and Mathilde Klaveness ( ...

* 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 in ...

* 1955 Melvin Calvin,

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 * 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, ,

References

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

Winners

See also

References