Sponsored by Gilead Alberta ULC
The R. U. Lemieux Award is presented to an organic chemist who has made a distinguished contribution to any area of organic chemistry and who is currently working in Canada.
View the Terms of Reference and list of Past Winners
The 2026 winner of the R. U. Lemieux Award is:
Rik Tykwinski, MCIC
University of Alberta
Rik R. Tykwinski completed his B.S. degree at the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1988 and his PhD in 1994 with Peter Stang at the University of Utah. He was an Office of Naval Research Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof François Diederich at ETH-Zürich, and he began his independent career at the University of Alberta in 1997. In 2009, he moved to Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany as Chair of Organic Chemistry I, and returned to the University of Alberta in 2016. The Tykwinski Group has gained international recognition for developing innovative synthetic methods for conjugated molecules that enable unprecedented structure-function studies and applications in organic materials. This work has championed cross-conjugated oligomers, stabilization schemes for the world’s longest sp-carbon oligomers (polyynes and [n]cumulenes), and the design of acenes for solar energy conversion. Since 2019, he has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry.