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 2024 winner of the Strem Chemicals Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry is:

Rodney D. L. Smith, MCIC
University of Waterloo
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Rodney Smith is an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo, where he began his independent career in 2017. His PhD research in the field of chemical modification of electrodes was conducted with Prof. Peter Pickup at Memorial University. He began his postdoctoral training under the joint supervision of Profs. Curtis Berlinguette and Simon Trudel at the University of Calgary, and then continued at the University of British Columbia with Prof. Berlinguette. His research on the synthesis and electrochemical properties of amorphous metal oxide electrocatalysts during these four years was supported by a Mitacs Elevate award. Funding from an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship then supported a move to Prof. Holger Dau’s labs in the Physics Department at the Freie Universität Berlin. This opportunity afforded Smith with extensive access to synchrotron facilities necessary to pursue his independent research ideas. The experience provided invaluable skills and a refined perspective on how to analyze solid-state structures that are sufficiently disordered that they render conventional analysis techniques useless. Smith’s research at Waterloo seeks to develop experimental strategies and tools to assist in better understanding how defects in solid state materials alter chemical reactivity of catalysts.

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Past Winners

2023

Oleksandr Voznyy, MCIC

University of Toronto
Society: CSC
2022

David E. Herbert, MCIC

University of Manitoba
Society: CSC
2021

Laura Turculet, MCIC

Dalhousie University
Society: CSC
2020

Joe B. Gilroy, MCIC

University of Western Ontario
Society: CSC
2019

Tim Storr

Simon Fraser University
Society: CSC
2018

Eric Rivard

University of Alberta
Society: CSC
2017

Dwight Seferos

University of Toronto
Society: CSC
2016

Curtis P. Berlinguette

University of British Columbia
Society: CSC
2015

Muralee Murugesu

University of Ottawa
Society: CSC
2014

Paul Ragogna

Western University
Society: CSC
2013

Mark MacLachlan

University of British Columbia
Society: CSC