Barrer Award
Recognising meritorious recent pure or applied work in the field of porous materials.
Details
| Status | Closed |
|---|---|
| Nominations opening date | 18 October 2024 |
| Nominations closing date | 18 January 2025 |
| Reference deadline | 25 January 2025 |
| Nominator eligibility | Anyone |
| Nominee eligibility | Individuals |
| Nominee location | UK and Ireland |
| Career stage | Early career |
Research & Innovation Prizes
Our Research & Innovation Prizes recognise brilliant chemical scientists carrying out amazing work in academia and industry. They include prizes for those at different career stages in chemistry and for those working in specific fields, as well as interdisciplinary prizes and prizes for those in specific roles
Judging panel
Magdalena Titirici
Imperial College London, UK
Marina Freitag
Newcastle University, UK
Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez
University of Glasgow, UK
Winners
Andrea Laybourn, University of Nottingham
For outstanding contributions towards developing the sustainable synthesis of porous materials, with a particular emphasis on microwave and continuous flow synthesis.
About this prize
The Barrer Award recognises meritorious recent pure or applied work in the field of porous materials.
- Run triennially: open for 2026 nominations
- The winner receives 拢500 and a certificate
- The winner will be chosen by representatives from the RSC Porous Materials Group, the British Zeolite Association (BZA) and the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).
Nominators:
- Only RSC members can nominate for this prize.
- Nominees may NOT nominate themselves.
Nominees:
- Nominees must have carried out their pure or applied work in the field of porous materials in an institution in the UK or the Republic of Ireland.
- Nominees should be an early career scientist (for further details, see information below and in the 鈥楪uidelines for Nominators鈥� section).
- Nominees can only be considered for one of our Research & Innovation Prizes in any given year. In a case where a nominee is nominated for more than one prize independently, RSC staff will ask the nominee which prize they would like to be considered for.
- We will not consider nominations of deceased individuals.
Career stage guidance
- After fully taking account of any time away from research, career breaks or interruptions, nominees will typically have no more than 10 years of full-time equivalent professional experience at the closing date for nominations.
- We define this as experience gained as part of a career working in scientific research, excluding time spent in full-time education. For example, experience studying as a postgraduate (PhD) student is not included, but this does include experience working as e.g. a post-doctoral researcher, or working in research in industry.
- Nominators will be asked to provide details of the nominee's professional experience, in relation to the above criteria (see 鈥楪uidelines for Nominators鈥�). The Prize Committee will consider this information in relation to the eligibility criteria, and they have the discretion to consider any nomination for a different prize under their remit.
- We particularly encourage nominations of disabled people, those who work part-time, or whose career has spanned a break for any reason 鈥� for example, a period of parental or adoption leave, caring responsibilities, long-term illness, family commitments, or other circumstances. We understand that these can impact a nominee鈥檚 career in different ways, and encourage nominators to use the space provided on the nomination form to explain the nature and impact of the nominees鈥� individual circumstances (see 'Guidelines for Nominators' for further details).
Submitting your nomination
Please use the online nominations system to submit the following information:
- Your name, contact details, and RSC membership number (please contact the RSC Membership team if you do not know your membership details).Your RSC membership must be confirmed at the point of nomination 鈥� it is not sufficient to have a membership application in process. The identity of nominators is not made known to our judging panels. The RSC reserves the right to amend nominations if necessary to ensure the anonymity of the nominator.
- Your nominee's name and contact details.
- An up to date CV for the nominee (no longer than one A4 side, 11pt text) which should include a summary of their education and career, and a maximum of 5 relevant publications or patents.
- Information relating to your nominee鈥檚 career and professional experience, which will be shared with the committee. Before doing so, RSC staff will always seek consent from the nominee in cases where special category data is mentioned. Please make sure that you provide enough information for the committee to understand the nature and impact of any time away from research.
- Date (month and year) of the start of their career working in scientific research.
- Details (dates and time periods) of any part-time work, time away from research, career breaks or interruptions 鈥� for example, parental/adoption leave, caring responsibilities, long-term illness, family commitments, etc.
- Any other circumstances not captured above 鈥� for example, long-term conditions, disabilities, etc., that you would like the committee to be aware of and consider.
- A short citation describing what the nominee should be awarded for. This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence.
- A supporting statement (up to 750 words) addressing the selection criteria. Our guidance for nominators page has more information on writing this supporting statement.
- A statement (up to 100 words) describing how your nominee has contributed more broadly to the scientific community. A list of possible examples is outlined in the 鈥榮election criteria鈥� tab.
- The name and contact details of one referee. The referee might be the nominee's post-doc or PhD supervisor, line manager, project manager or mentor:
- The reference should be a maximum of 750 words. Referees will be asked to state their relationship (if any) with the nominee and note any conflicts of interest.
- All references must be submitted by the reference deadline, 21 January, 17:00 GMT. Nominations will not go forward to judging without a completed reference. Please ensure you submit your referee's details in plenty of time, to allow them sufficient opportunity to provide their reference.
- It is the nominator鈥檚 responsibility to ensure that the referee is aware of the nomination, that they should expect an e-mail invitation to submit their reference, and that they are aware of what is required to ensure that the reference is submitted before the deadline.
Our selection committees base their evaluations on the overall quality of relevant contributions and achievements by nominees, in relation to the selection criteria listed below.
The scientific content of any supporting publications, as described in the supporting statement, is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it is published.
The selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations for this prize:
- Originality of research
- Impact of research
- Quality of publications and/or patents and/or software
- Innovation
- Professional standing
- Independence
- Collaborations and teamwork
- Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator
In an instance where multiple nominees are judged equally meritorious in relation to the above criteria, judging panels have the flexibility to use information provided by the nominator on the nominee鈥檚 broader contribution to the chemistry community as an additional criterion.
Examples of relevant contributions could include, but are not limited to:
- Involvement with 浪花直播 member groups/networks
- Teaching/demonstrating
- Effective mentorship
- Service on boards, committees or panels
- Leadership in the scientific community
- Peer-reviewer
- Promotion of diversity and inclusion
- Advocacy for chemistry
- Public engagement and outreach
First awarded in 1983, the Barrer Award pays tribute to the memory of Richard Maling Barrer (1910-1996), the founding father of zeolite chemistry. The award, created after the 1979 Zeolites conference, is administered by the 浪花直播, the Society for Chemical Industry and the British Zeolite Association.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Barrer studied at Canterbury University before obtaining an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship in 1932 to study at the University of Cambridge for his PhD. There he joined the Colloid laboratory, where he remained until 1948, when he moved to establish a research school at Aberdeen. In 1954 he moved again to Imperial where he remained for the rest of his career.
Barrer is credited with establishing the field of zeolite research and its applications in industry. He developed a synthesis programme with the Union Carbide Corporation, and 1957 saw the building of the first manufacturing plant using zeolite catalysts. In addition to his extensive work on zeolites, Barrer published dozens of papers in very different fields, including polymer membranes and molecular transport in microporous media.
Honorary degrees from Bradford and Aberdeen, and a special issue of the Journal of Membrane Science in 1983 dedicated to Barrer recognised his contributions to chemistry. His learned society affiliations included membership of the Councils of both the 浪花直播 and the Society of Chemical Industry, and Honorary President of the International Zeolite Association.
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