Italian honour for University of York scientist
Posted on 20 May 2008
Professor Robin Perutz, of the University’s Department of Chemistry, will travel to Lecce in south-east Italy this September to receive the award at the 36th National Congress of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry of the Italian Chemical Society. The award recognises his outstanding achievements throughout his career.
The medal recognises not only my own research but also the hard work and dedication of my research group and my collaborators
Professor Robin Perutz
Robin Perutz is a previous winner of the Nyholm Medal from the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry, and is currently President of the Royal Society’s Dalton Division. In his research, he uses light to initiate chemical reactions of compounds containing metals and deduce how they react. This method has allowed him to determine how the metals behave in catalytic processes and to discover new types of chemical interactions between metals and organic compounds.
The medal is named after Luigi Sacconi, a twentieth-century chemist who published world-leading research into magnetism and spectroscopy. It is presented by the Italian Chemical Society and the Luigi Sacconi Foundation.
Professor Perutz said: "It's very exciting and a great honour to be given this award. The medal recognises not only my own research but also the hard work and dedication of my research group and my collaborators, without whom none of it would be possible."
Previous recipients of the award include two Nobel prizewinners, Roald Hoffman and Ryoji Noyori.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The Department of Chemistry at the University of York is a large and successful department, with an excellent reputation for both teaching and research. The department was graded 5A in the last Research Assessment Exercise.
- The 2007 National Student Survey rated chemistry courses at York as the best in the UK for overall student satisfaction. It has 47 members of staff including many winners of international prizes, over 420 undergraduate students, approximately 130 postgraduates (mainly studying for PhDs) and 80 research fellows.
- The Department’s laboratories were recently extended and modernised. In 2007 the chemistry department at York was the first academic department in the UK to win a gold award from the Athena SWAN Charter for Women in Science.