Sponsored by Strem Catalog part of Ascensus Specialties
The Strem Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry is presented to a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant who has made an outstanding contribution to inorganic chemistry, demonstrating exceptional promise, while working in Canada.
View the Terms of Reference and list of Past Winners
The 2026 winner of the Strem Chemicals Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry is:
Christopher Caputo, MCIC
York University
Dr. Christopher Caputo is an Associate Professor and Tier II Canada Research Chair in the Department of Chemistry at York University. He earned his Honours BSc from the University of Windsor conducting research with Prof. Stephen Loeb, before completing his PhD at the University of Toronto with Prof. Douglas Stephan. He undertook an NSERC Postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University with Prof. Theodore Betley. In addition, Dr. Caputo has complementary experience outside of academia. He was the Director of Research and Development at the Toronto-based startup, Inkbox, which pioneered semi-permanent tattoo technology and was acquired by BIC in 2022. Dr. Caputo’s diverse experiences have shaped his research group’s interests, which span both fundamental and applied chemistry—advancing sustainable main-group catalysis that challenges reactivity once thought exclusive to transition metals, and the entrepreneurial application of chemical discoveries for technology development.