Bruker Prize Lecture 2021
Since 1986 Bruker BioSpin has generously sponsored an annual lectureship and prize, given to a scientist who has made a major contribution to the application of EPR/ESR spectroscopy. The ESR Spectroscopy Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry is pleased to announce that the 2021 Bruker Prize will be awarded to Prof. Michael Wasielewski of Northwestern University, for the development and application of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance to the study of photochemical and photophysical processes. Through his highly successful marriage of optical spectroscopy and EPR he has made pioneering contributions in the fields of artificial photosynthesis, nanoscale optoelectronics and quantum information science.
The 2021 Bruker Prize Lecture will be delivered at our 2021 virtual meeting, hosted by University of Cardiff, and after cancellation of our Manchester meeting the 2020 Bruker Prize lecture will also take place at this meeting (see below). Both Bruker prize lectures will be delivered “live” by the speakers, see the full programme here.
Bruker Prize Lecture 2020
The 2020 Bruker Prize will be awarded to Prof. David Collison of The University of Manchester. The nominations emphasised David’s seminal contributions to experimental and theoretical fundamentals of transition metal EPR, from bioinorganic chemistry to molecular materials, including his authoritative textbook. Crucially, they also stressed his important and selfless work in developing, supporting and nurturing the EPR community throughout his career. As co-founder and director of the successful EPSRC UK National EPR Facility, he has fostered collaboration not only between EPRists, but also between the EPR and wider science communities. This has had significant impact in widening the application base and popularising applications of EPR across the scientific spectrum.
The list of previous Bruker Prize winners is available here.
Bruker Thesis Prize 2021
The ESR Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Bruker Corporation are pleased to announce the winner of the 7th Bruker ESR Thesis Prize is Dr Daphné Lubert-Perquel for her thesis "Combining Film Design and Spectroscopic Strategies to Elucidate Triplet Dynamics in Molecular Systems" completed at the Imperial College London, supervised by Prof. Sandrine Heutz.
As summarised by her thesis examiners "Daphne’s thesis does justice to her exceptional talents as a researcher, and provides an outstanding narrative of the use of EPR spectroscopy to understand the photophysics of triplets in molecular systems… it makes a unique contribution to the field in terms of both its quality, and also its breadth […]" In agreement with these observations, the RSC ESR assessors were impressed by the truly comprehensive approach Daphne took in tackling this project. From the design, synthesis and structural characterisation of the films to their investigation by EPR spectroscopy combined with complementary spectroscopic analyses and detailed calculations, the work of her thesis was an exciting scientific journey which elucidates the chemistry and physics of these exciting paramagnetic centres.
The Bruker Thesis Prize 2021 lecture will be delivered at the 54th Annual International Meeting of the RSC ESR spectroscopy group, a virtual meeting organised by University of Cardiff. The prize lecture will be delivered live online at 1600 (BST) on Tuesday 13th April 2021.
Bruker Thesis Prize 2020
The winner of the 2020 Bruker Thesis Prize competition was Dr Nabeel Aslam for his thesis completed at the University of Stuttgart, supervised by Prof. Jörg Wrachtrup.
Nabeel studied physics at the University of Mainz, Germany, and completed his studies in 2012. He then moved to Stuttgart, Germany, for his PhD in the institute of Prof. Jörg Wrachtrup. After earning his PhD degree in 2018, he joined the Department of Physics and Chemistry at Harvard University as a Postdoctoral fellow in the labs of Mikhail Lukin and Hongkun Park. He has been granted the Feodor Lynen fellowship by the Humboldt foundation.
The Bruker Thesis Prize 2020 lecture, entitled "Single electron spin nanoscale NMR with chemical structure resolution" was due to be delivered at the 53rd Annual International Meeting of the RSC ESR spectroscopy group in Manchester, on Wednesday, April 1st 2020. After cancellation of that meeting we are delighted to announce that the 2020 Bruker Thesis Prize lecture will be delivered live online at 1600 (BST) on Monday 12th April 2021 during the virtual meeting.
Details of past Bruker Thesis Prize winners are available on our dedicated thesis prize page.
We eagerly anticipate all four prize lectures taking place at the 2021 meeting and are grateful to Bruker for their continued support of these prizes.