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Rutherford Memorial Medals in Chemistry
- 2011 - Federico Rosei
- 2010 – Andrei Yudin
- 2009 – Dennis G. Hall
- 2008 – Peter Tieleman
- 2007 - Gregory D. Scholes
- 2006 - Molly Shoichet
- 2005 - Jillian M. Buriak
- 2004 - Andrew Woolley
- 2003 - Liang Li
- 2002 - André B. Charette
- 2001 - Warren Piers
- 2000 - Suning Wang
- 1999 - Danial D.M. Wayner
- 1998 - Benoît Roux
- 1997 - R.J. Dwayne Miller
- 1996 - Ian Manners
- 1995 - Todd B. Marder
- 1994 - Mark Lautens
- 1993 - Stephen G. Withers
- 1992 - James D. Wuest
- 1991 - Robert H. Morris
- 1990 - Michael D. Fryzuk
- 1989 - Peter Hackett
- 1988 - Raymond J. Andersen
- 1987 - Grenfell N. Patey
- 1986 - David Griller
- 1985 - Stephen C. Wallace
- 1984 - R.J. Le Roy
- 1983 - Juan C. Scaiano
- 1982 - Geoffrey Ozin
- 1981 - Diethard K. Böhme
- 1980 - G. Michael Bancroft, FRSC
Top of Page2011 - Federico Rosei
Federico Rosei's work and scientific achievements have led to remarkable new insights on the properties of organic/inorganic surfaces and interfaces. In particular he has made outstanding contributions to the understanding of molecule-surface interactions, surface reconstructions induced by molecular adsorbates, formation of supramolecular structures governed by non-covalent interactions, guest/host molecular architectures and surface confined polymerization reactions.
2010 – Andrei Yudin
Andrei Yudin has developed versatile reagents that allow rapid synthesis of complex biologically active molecules. His reactions are widely used tools that enable the synthesis of molecules that act as specific probes of protein function in vivo and in vitro.
2009 –Dennis G. Hall
Dennis G. Hall, in the eleventh year of his independent career, has built a phenomenal research record. Working in the broad field of chemical synthesis, Professor Hall has established himself as a world leader in the important areas of combinatorial chemistry, synthetic methodology, and total synthesis of natural products, asymmetric catalysis, and molecular recognition. The significance of his work is extensive.
2008 – Peter Tieleman
Peter Tieleman is regarded as one of the top biophysical membrane scientists in the world. His Ph.D. and post-doctoral work resulted in seminal contributions in the areas of lipids, membrane proteins and lipid-peptide interactions. He has made significant contributions to our understanding of membrane dynamics, ion channel function, drug binding to membranes, pore formation in the membranes and studies of drug transporters.
2007 - Gregory D. Scholes
Dr. Scholes has built a superb research program, with an extraordinary diversity that spans physics, physical chemistry, materials chemistry, and biology. Dr. Scholes has probed deeply into how light interacts with nanoscale materials to discover the conceptual backbone that underpins designs and breakthroughs in topics including solar energy, plastic visual displays, solid-state lighting, and security technologies. His scholarship and potential have been consistently recognized through a number of awards.
2006 - Molly Shoichet
Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto
Dr. Shoichet is an innovative and influential scholar working at the interface of polymer science, biomaterials and tissue engineering. Dr. Shoichet seeks to advance fundamental science and has changed the way scientists think about patterning 3-D hydrogels for controlled cellular response. She is internationally acclaimed and recognized for her outstanding research and leadership in a field that requires multi-disciplinary training at the interface of chemistry, biology and engineering. Molly exemplifies Rutherford's ideals and accomplishments in science.
2005 - Jillian M. Buriak
Jillian Buriak is Professor and Canada Research Chair of Inorganic and Nanoscale Materials in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta, and Group Leader at the National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) of the NRC, Edmonton Alberta. In less than l0 years, Dr. Buriak has become a world leader in nanoscience, materials research, the chemistry of semiconductor surfaces, nanolithography, and new approaches towards homogeneous catalyst platforms and sensing. Her group has developed a series of new and highly efficient reactions in silicon and germanium that allow for exquisite tailoring of these interfaces, down to the nanoscale regime. They have discovered fundamentally new reactivity on silicon surfaces that is unprecedented, including electrochemically driven reactions that have no parallel with the molecular literature, and chemistry unique to silicon nanoparticles (size-dependent chemistry). While miniaturization of integrated silicon circuits (IC's) will continue according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), with feature sizes expected to drop to 30 nm in 2010 from just over l00 nm today, an end to present day IC manufacturing is imminent. The work of the Buriak group is critical in enabling molecular electronics based on hybrid organic-silicon based structures. Her work now allows for any molecule - biological, conjugated, highly functional, or stabilizing, to be interfaced directly to silicon and other technologically relevant semiconductors. In addition, Dr. Buriak has developed highly efficient methods of interfacing metal nanostructures directly with semiconductors, important for metal interconnect technology and sensing applications. While molecular electronics is under development, the chemistry of the Buriak group is being used for present day commercial applications - her work has led to patents that are licensed to several companies for in-vivo silicon-based drug delivery, lab-on-chip analyses, and pharmaceutical screening.
2004 - Andrew Woolley
Andrew Woolley, Professor in the Department on Chemistry, University of Toronto, has made a number of important contributions that have helped to define the new field of Chemical Biology. This field marries imaginative chemical synthesis with the aim of understanding and manipulating complex biochemical systems. Prof. Woolley's contributions have been elegant and have appealed to scientists in many disciplines. In designing chemically modified ion channels, he was the first to observe isomerization of one bond in a single molecule. This stands as a landmark achievement. Most recently his group, together with collaborators, were the first to observe ion channel opening and closing both optically and electrically at the single molecule level. This work will impact physiologists, cell biologists, biophysicists and others. His contribution with perhaps the most general impact, however, has been his elegantly simple design of a chemical method that permits the manipulation of protein structures with light. A general ability to manipulate proteins with light promises to transform our ability to probe and to control complex biochemical systems.
2003 - Liang Li
Dr. Li, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta, uses matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry to provide analytical information about large molecules. He is generating breakthrough analytical methodologies and innovative instrumentation designs that are key tools for proteomics and large polymer characterization. His laboratory has developed instrumentation with sufficient resolution and accuracy to allow the detection of 4.2 x 10-20 mole of a peptide, a record for detection of the smallest amount of a biological compound by mass spectrometry. His group was the first to use a proteomic approach to identify by mass spectrometry the proteins in a single mammalian cell containing some 500 attomoles of protein. His combining of nanoliter sample handling with mass spectrometry makes possible rapid and sensitive identification of bacteria, an important medical, health, and security need. His group holds the world record for detection of the highest polymer mass (1.5 million Daltons) by MALDI-TOF. MALDI and electrospray are critical tools for protein characterization and in the design of new biopharmaceuticals such as inhibitors of viral proteins. Dr. Li is an internationally recognized leader in developing these tools.
2002 - André B. Charette
André B. Charette, Full Professor, Département de chimie, and NSERC/Merck Frosst/Boehringer Ingelheim Industrial Chair, Université de Montréal, has an outstanding research and academic pedigree, and he has distinguished himself in the area of asymmetric processes in spite of his relatively short period of time in the academic arena. His work on asymmetric cyclopropanation using chiral auxiliaries has already attracted considerable attention. The "Charette asymmetric cyclopropanation" of allylic alcohols is a popular method among synthetic chemists today. His outstanding work in this area has been recognized internationally with a number of commentaries in prestige journals. He has also devised conceptually novel approaches to catalyst and reaction design with important applications in Diels-Alder reactions and Claisen rearrangements.
His publications now exceeding seventy have appeared in some of the most prestigious journals, and he has been an invited speaker in national and international symposia, as well as in industry. His list of invitations alone is impressive, including a visiting lectureships in several European and American Universities. Few if any other young Canadian colleagues could boast such visibility. André is clearly one of Canada's brightest young investigators, and among the top twenty in his age group in North America. André Charette has been the recipient of some of Canada's most prestigious awards including a Steacie Fellowship, and an Astra RFP Award. His talents have been rewarded by the establishment of a research chair for him. He is dynamic, bright and a superb colleague.
2001 - Warren Piers
Warren E. Piers is regarded by his peers as one of the best organometallic chemists of his age group (below forty) in the world. His Ph.D. and postdoctoral work resulted in seminal contributions in the areas of rhodium and scandium chemistry, respectively. His independent career, first at the University of Guelph and now at the University of Calgary, has been characterized by highly innovative contributions to the field of early transition-metal chemistry and, in particular, catalytic olefin polymerization. In addition to the fundamental interest in this area of organometallic chemistry, this work is of considerable practical importance to the polyolefins industry as indicated by the recent appointment of Dr. Piers to the S. Robert Blair Chair (funded by Nova Chemicals) at the University of Calgary. In recent years, Piers and his group have systematically developed the chemistry of novel polyfluorinated boranes and investigated their role as Lewis acid catalysts in the polymerization of olefins by early transition-metal catalysts. These studies have established Piers as a world leader in this field as indicated by regular invitations to speak at international conferences and the Gordon conference on organometallic chemistry.
2000 - Suning Wang
Suning Wang, Professor of Chemistry, Queen's University, has a wide range of research interest and expertise. She is constantly and extremely successfully exploring new research fields that are very challenging and competitive. During her 9 years academic career, she has made significant contributions to research areas in superconductors, molecular magnetism, molecular dynamics in solution, supramolecular chemistry, main group organometallic chemistry, and luminescent and electroluminescent materials. Her research group was among the first to synthesize systematically unusual polynuclear mixed metal complexes and investigate their applications in superconductors. Her work in superconductor research was cited by an article in Chemical and Engineering News, the American Chemical Society newsmagazine.
Recently, she initiated research in luminescent organometallic compounds and their applications in electroluminescent devices such as laptop computer monitors. She discovered the first stable organoboron blue emitter and applied it successfully in electroluminescent devices. Her research group is leading the research of small organometallic/inorganic molecules in electroluminescent displays. She has an impressive publication record: 3 review articles and 84 original research papers in first class peer-reviewed journals (of which 55 papers were from her independent research efforts since she started her academic career in 1990).
1999 - Danial D.M. Wayner
Danial D. M. Wayner, Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, is distinguished for his seminal contributions to the electrochemistry of organic free radicals and for his innovative studies on the kinetics and thermochemistry of neutral free radicals and radical ions. Wayner's electrochemical work and studies on laser-induced photoacoustic calorimetry have dramatically increased our store of reliable bond dissociation energies and provided the first comprehensive compilation of standard potentials of radicals. He has made important advances in our understanding of the fundamentals of electron transfer and the design of chemical probes for both radical ion and alkoxyl radical intermediates. These probes are now widely used by physical organic and inorganic chemists as an essential test for these intermediates. Wayner now applies his physical organic knowledge and expertise to the organic modification of semiconductor surfaces, a research area which promises to underpin future molecular electronic, sensor and biochip technologies. His research has had a broad impact on the entire fields of physical organic chemistry and electrochemistry.
1998 - Benoît Roux
Benoît Roux, Université de Montréal, is a pioneer in using theory to help better understand biological systems at the molecular level. The main objective of his research is the theoretical investigation of the structure, dynamics, and function of biological macromolecular systems using molecular dynamics. Of particular interest is developing a better understanding of ion channels and lipid-protein interactions. He is one of the first to study the influence of the membrane on the function of membrane proteins by using molecular dynamics simulations in which the phospholipid bilayer and the solvent are treated explicitly. With these studies, Benoît Roux is laying the theoretical foundations for an understanding of the fundamental principles governing membrane functions based on detailed atomic models and modern computational techniques. His work has begun to establish a bridge between the worlds of theory and experiment in biophysics using powerful computer models. Ultimately, this work will help us to better understand the molecular basis of life.
1997 - R.J. Dwayne Miller
R. J. Dwayne Miller is known for his pioneering work in biophysics and interfacial chemistry. His work was the first to experimentally address how energy becomes distributed in biological molecules. This work has led to a new paradigm for understanding the structure/function relationship of biological molecules in which the reaction forces involved in a biological process couple to the collective modes of the protein assembly. This work solved an apparent paradox with respect to the time scale that biological systems execute their functions and their inherent complexity. In the area of interfacial chemistry, we now have a real time view of reactive electron tunneling across electrode interfaces through his efforts. This process forms the foundation for the entire field of electrochemistry which traces its origins back to the days of Faraday. However, prior to his work, it was not possible to follow transition state processes of what is the most prevalent reaction mechanism in surface chemistry. Through a combination of highly sensitive, novel, femtosecond laser spectroscopies, we now have a complete mapping of the initial events that govern heterogeneous electron transfer. These are pioneering studies which will impact in the development of new biomimics and next generation technologies for solar energy conversion.
1996 - Ian Manners
Ian Manners is the most eminent chemist in his age group in Canada and his research work on inorganic molecular and polymeric materials has achieved broad international acclaim. His work on the development of synthetic pathways to new classes of polymers based on inorganic element, is of both fundamental and applied interest as such materials have considerable technological potential. His discovery of ring-opening polymerization routes to high molecular weight transition metal-based polymers such as poly(ferrocenylsilanes) which utilize strained metallocenophane precursors is of particular importance and has established him as an international leader in the synthetic polymer field. He has also made important, internationally recognized contributions to main group ring and polymer chemistry. Since joining the Faculty at the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor in July 1990, he has published over eighty-four research papers and his achievements have been widely recognized with over sixty-five invited lectures, the awarding of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, early tenure, and promotion to Full Professor, all in just five years. The latter accomplishment is unprecedented in his department. Dr. Manners' teaching has also achieved widespread acclaim and in 1994 he was the recipient of the prestigious Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Award.
1995 - Todd B. Marder
Todd Marder's major contribution to chemistry has been in the applications of organometallic chemistry to homogeneous catalysis of organic transformations, and to the development of new materials. He is a leader in the development of catalyst systems for hydroboration, dehydrogenative borylation and diboration of alkenes and alkynes, and in the field of metal-boryl chemistry, where he has demonstrated stoichiometric reactions which model critical steps in the above catalytic pathways. He has carried out forefront studies of metal acetylide complexes and rigid-rod polymers, and developed catalytic syntheses of rigid-rod organic oligomers with potential applications in electro-optic devices. His laboratory at the University of Waterloo is also involved in the preparation of novel organometallic and organo-main group compounds with interesting nonlinear optical properties.
1994 - Mark Lautens
Mark Lautens, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, is the most eminent organic chemist of this age group in Canada. He has achieved broad international acclaim in the fields of organic synthetic methodology, the synthesis of natural products, asymmetric catalysis, and metal catalysed polymerizations, all areas at the cutting edge of synthetic organic chemistry. Of particular importance to drug synthesis has been his development of methods for simultaneously controlling the structures of up to six locations during the formation of complex molecules. His achievements have been widely recognized, for example by the Merck-Frosst Award, the Eli Lilly Award, and a Sloan Fellowship.
1993 - Stephen G. Withers
Stephen G. Withers, The University of British Columbia, has made important contributions to our understanding of the mechanisms of enzyme action. The significance of his early studies on the mechanism of regulation of the glycogen phosphorylase system has been widely recognized. He subsequently used fluorinated sugars to shed light on the mechanisms of glycosidase inhibition. The latter research requires an elegant combination of synthetic and analytical work and, among other discoveries, has enabled his group to isolate the labelled active-site peptide in a number of systems. By forcefully combining biochemical and physico-chemical methodologies, Professor Withers has become one of the formidable young research workers in the worldwide study of enzymic processes.
1992 - James D. Wuest
Professor Wuest has made outstanding contributions to both organic and inorganic chemistry. Of particular note is his work on multidentate Lewis acids, noncovalent interactions, metallocycles, and hydride transfer reactions. The impact of his research is such that, in the latter area, it is already cited in several recent textbooks. Professor Wuest is a highly creative individual who has already attained a significant international reputation. He has received the Merck Sharpe and Dohme Lecture Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry for outstanding accomplishments by an organic chemist under age 40, as well as the Young Scientist Award of the Canadian National Committee for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
1991 - Robert H. Morris
Dr. Morris is recognized for his leading work on reactions involving hydrogen gas and metals, which are of importance in the fields of catalysis and hydrogen storage. By using X-ray, neutron diffraction and advanced magnetic resonance methods, he has discovered more examples of dihydrogen complexes than anyone else and has become a world leader in studies of dihydrogen complexes in the solid state and in solution. His pioneering publications on the properties of such complexes involving iron and ruthenium are among the most widely cited in chemistry. In addition he has a solid record of work on the problems of nitrogen fixation and metal-metal bonding. His skill and insight have brought him recognition as one of the best inorganic chemists in North America.
1990 - Michael D. Fryzuk
Dr. Fryzuk is considered an exceptional young inorganic chemist who has attained national and international recognition for excellence. The productive and innovative work of his research program centres on the design and synthesis of novel transition metal complexes. He pioneered the concept of a hybrid ligand with a schizophrenic head and tail which, in combination with a transition metal cation, led to his discovery of a new family of compounds with unusual and interesting chemical properties. With these new ligand systems, Dr. Fryzuk prepared the first stable amide complexes of rhodium, iridium and palladium, and the first phosphine complexes of ytterbium, zirconium and hafnium-- combinations which were not previously possible. Recently, useful catalytic properties were found in these compounds which could lead to commercially important spin-offs. For this research, Dr. Fryzuk received a Sloan Fellowship in 1984.
Among his numerous publications, Dr. Fryzuk has produced an impressive number of landmark papers. And his career is described as showing every sign of being even more outstanding in the years to come. Dr. Fryzuk was born in Samia, Ontario, in 1952 and earned his B.Sc. (1974) and Ph.D. (1978) at the University of Toronto. He is currently Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia, which he joined in 1979. He has authored more than 50 papers and has spoken at universities across the US and western Europe. He was awarded the Killam Prize in 1989.
1989 - Peter Hackett
Dr. Hackett is a pioneering and innovative photochemist who has made seminal contributions to the development of photochemical techniques and the analysis and interpretation of photochemical data. His early work was concerned primarily with gas phase photochemistry; his work on the photochemistry of fluorinated acetone classic. His infra-red multiphoton isotope separation project set a standard that serves as a gauge to subsequent work. His more current research has been directed to both exploiting and developing laser technologies to solve a wide range of chemical problems. His latest work on the production and characterization of reactive species in molecular beams is of the highest international caliber.
1988 - Raymond J. Andersen
Raymond J. Andersen is an outstanding young organic chemist who has revolutionized the study of marine natural products. His research group has isolated and synthesized a large number of new compounds that are present in cold water marine organisms, a hitherto unexploited source of such materials. Many of these compounds have been shown to have important anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. In addition to their practical importance the compounds provide important evidence in the investigation of biosynthetic pathways present in marine organisms. His research is characterized by a high degree of technical skill and by a profound understanding of the means by which organic chemistry can be brought to bear on the workings of biological systems.
1987 - Grenfell N. Patey
Dr. Patey is considered a leading theoretical physical chemist of his generation. The basic aim of his work is to describe, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the macroscopic properties of matter in terms of intermolecular forces. He has placed particular emphasis on studying water and aqueous electrolyte solutions. In the process of this work, he has developed new and powerful theoretical techniques which can be quite generally applied to polar liquids and ionic solutions. Dr. Patey's approach to the study of electrolyte solutions differs from nearly all previous theoretical treatments in that he includes the solvent as a discrete molecular species rather than as a simple continuum, as in the Debye Huckel and other theories. His work has gained him an international reputation. His appropriateness as recipient of the Rutherford Medal in Chemistry is seen when comparison is made between his particle -versus- continuum model of the solvent and Rutherford's particle -versus- continuum model of the atom.
Dr. Patey, born in St. Anthony, Newfoundland, studied at Memorial University and the University of Toronto. He was a National Research Council (NRC) postdoctoral Fellow at the Université de Paris, and a Research Associate at the NRC in Ottawa, before joining the University of British Columbia in 1980. He has published more than forty-five papers and has six manuscripts in progress. He is currently Professor and Researcher at the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Hautes Energies, Université Paris XI.
1986 - David Griller
Dr. David Griller has made outstanding contributions to many different areas of physical organic chemistry. He discovered a number of long-lived free radicals of novel structure. This work eventually led to the now widely accepted concept of "persistence". He also carried out the first comprehensive study of the effects of high pressure on free-radical processes in a daring experiment in which quartz cells were operated at 300 atmospheres in the cavity of an EPR spectrometer!
Griller has reported his measurements of the heats of formation of some of the simpler alkyl radicals. His heats of formation are now widely accepted because they lead to a rationalization of thermal rearrangements in organic chemistry and of kinetic theory for the gas-phase recombination of alkyl radicals. More recently, Griller has been investigating the kinetics of carbene reactions and has demonstrated that carbenes can show a strong discrimination in their reactivities towards alcohol monomers and oligomers. This appears to be the first time that such discrimination has been detected in an organic reaction. In three manuscripts the relations between the singlet and triplet states of diarylcarbenes and their chemistries have been investigated. His results have remarkable implications for the spin selection rules which have been the foundation of carbene chemistry for three decades. Single crystal EPR studies, laser flash photolysis, and basic organic chemistry were all used in this work which illustrates Griller's comprehensive approach to chemical problems.
1985 - Stephen C. Wallace
The scope and impact of Professor Wallace's contributions to chemical physics place him among the nation's most promising young scientists. He has established himself in four areas of research. First came the development of several novel tunable vacuum ultraviolet lasers. Second was a series of venturesome studies of the laser-induced fluorescence of cold molecules in supersonic jets. Third was the development of the powerful method of two-wavelength laser-induced ionization for the study of larger clusters in jets. Finally, Professor Wallace has contributed in a notable fashion to the exciting new field of laser-assisted collisions energy transfer in the course of the first application of this approach to a molecular system. The elements that comprise this interlocking body of work can be expected to blend together in the coming years to yield valuable new techniques, and new insights into the nature of bonding and of energy transfer. Recently, in work with a summer student, Mr. Erik Kruus, Professor Wallace identified "laser assisted collisions" in a novel context where their involvement had not previously been suggested; in work with Mr. Hager he provided the first experimental study to how the theoretically predicted threshold behaviour for the onset of photolonization in weakly-bound molecular clusters; and in work with Mr. Ivanco he demonstrated experimentally (also for the first time) the effect of rotation on vibronic coupling in a polyatomic molecule.
1984 - R.J. Le Roy
Dr. LeRoy is distinguished for his outstanding contributions to the field of molecular theory, his most notable work relating to the problems of long-range potentials between atoms and to the behaviour of the Van der Waals molecules. He has also studied the development and application of models for the kinetics of certain types of chemical reactions. Dr. LeRoy's investigations have been noted for their high degree of originality and perception, as well as their importance to the further work of both theorists and experimentalists.
1983 - Juan C. Scaiano
Juan C. Scaiano, of the National Research Council, the 1983 winner of the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry, is a leader in the field of photochemistry. His development and application of laser techniques for the study of rapid organic reactions have led to fast and accurate methods for the study of reaction kinetics. Dr. Scaiano's work in alkoxy radicals is universally recognized as one of the major landmarks in the field of kinetics. Until 1977, despite numerous studies on alkoxy radicals, and their known importance in organic chemistry, combustion, and oxidation processes, all attempts to measure absolute rates for their reactions had failed. Dr. Scaiano applied laser techniques to measure successfully the rate constants for over 100 different reactions of alkoxy radicals. Even more important, this work led to the development of some simple, but extremely innovative, experimental techniques of wide applicability to other problems in organic chemistry. Over the last five years, these techniques hae been successfully applied to make quantitative kinetic measurements on a wide variety of carbon radicals, silicon radicals, tin radicals, phosphorus radicals, etc.
Yet another area where Dr. Scaiano has made quite remarkable contributions has been the study of triplet energy transfer processes. In particular, the development of methods to study the transfer of energy between identical chromophores has led to the first absolute measurements of triplet energy migration rates in homogeneous solution, in micellar systems, and in polymers. By elucidating the role of reaction intermediates, such as excited states, free radicals and carbenes, Juan Scaiano has revolutionized the understanding of organic reactions.
1982 - Geoffrey Ozin
Geoffrey Ozin, a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, is an inorganic-physical chemist whose research has elucidated the synthesis, spectroscopy, and catalysis of metal-atomic, metal-cluster, and metal-colloidal reagents. He has manipulated metal-atom reactions by thermal and photochemical means in inert media to produce a wide range of well-defined uni- and bi-metallic clusters of a novel type. He has also investigated the chemical behaviour of metal atoms with a variety of inorganic and organic reactive materials. These studies have led to many new and important organometallic materials, some of a cluster type that have proved to be pivotal models of applications in surface science and catalysis. In all cases, Dr. Ozin has applied innovative methods, both experimental and theoretical, to these systems. Significant contributions that have emerged from Geoffrey Ozin's work over the past decade include pioneering developments of spectroscopy for inorganic single crystals and high temperature gas phases, the synthesis and characterization of few-atom metal clusters, and the dynamic properties of metal atoms and clusters.
1981 - Diethard K. Böhme
Dr. Diethard K. Böhme, of York University, has been awarded the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry for his important and widely recognized work on ion-molecule reactions in the gas phase. Born in Boston in 1941, he studied at McGill University, where he obtained a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, then on scholarships at the University of London, at the Environmental Science Service in Boulder, Colorado, and at York University. His highly innovative work has covered three important areas. First, he has obtained a very large amount of fundamental data on reactions in the gas phase that has provided the basis for a much improved understanding of chemical reactions. Second, he has been able to apply his knowledge of gas phase reactions to the reactions that occur in interstellar clouds. Third, he has made very important contributions to our understanding of the reactions that occur in flames. He has established an international reputation in his field and his work is cited in numerous review articles and text books.
1980 - G. Michael Bancroft, FRSC
Dr. Bancroft's researches, largely centred on the development of Mössbauer and photoelectron spectroscopy, span many fast-moving and important areas in geochemistry, mineralogy, inorganic chemistry, and solid-state physics. In each of these areas, to which he has contributed sufficient to content lesser men, he is the Canadian leader. He has a record of achievement of commanding dimensions. It would be impressive as the sum of a scientist's endeavours; as an interim report of a developing young man it is spectacular. His versatility is demonstrated by his having been a principal investigator of lunar rock, and he is now working on three major research projects: a study of the stability of glasses which may be useful for storing nuclear waste; the first permanent Canadian access to a major electron storage ring, the best source of synchrotron radiation; and new methods of removing toxic metals from industrial effluent.