Top Canadian chemists were honoured at the annual Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) awards ceremony Feb. 17 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. Michael Kovacs of Western University, nuclear chemist Thomas Ruth, special adviser, emeritus at TRIUMF, and McMaster University’s John Valliant won the Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering. Aaron Wheeler of the University of Toronto was an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship recipient. Robert W. Besant of the University of Saskatchewan was given a Synergy Award for Innovation – Category 1: Small- and Medium-sized Companies.
Christine Le, a PhD candidate in chemistry at the University of Toronto, has been cited as a rising star by Forbes for her research on designing more efficient and environmentally friendly methods to create molecules that are mainly used by pharmaceutical drug and chemical manufacturing industries.
Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering members Janus A. Kozinski of Toronto and Ding-Yu Peng of Saskatoon were named Fellows of the Engineering Institute of Canada for exceptional contributions to engineering in Canada.
Adrian Schwan of the University of Guelph Department of Chemistry is the first-ever recipient of the inaugural Canadian Journal of Chemistry Best Paper Award, awarded by the Canadian Journal of Chemistry and Canadian Science Publishing. The winning paper, titled “Unexpected Reactions of Grignard Reagents with Selected β-Carboalkoxy Substituted Sulfinate Esters,” was authored by Robert J. Faragher, Mohanad Gh. Shkoor, Kylie L. Luska and Adrian L. Schwan.
Stacey Wetmore of the University of Lethbridge won the 2015 Canadian Journal of Chemistry Annual Conference Grant from the Canadian Journal of Chemistry and Canadian SciencePublishing.
Federico Rosei of the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre in Varennes, Que. has won the prestigious Chang Jiang Scholars Award from the Chinese government. Rosei was honoured for his work in the field of organic and inorganic nanomaterials.