The Royal Society of Canada has announced its 2018 award winners which include Tomislav Friščić, McGill University and Gwendolyn Bailey, NSERC. The awards will be presented at an Awards Ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018 at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel, in Halifax.
Tomislav Friščić, MCIC, an associate professor at McGill University has won the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry. The Award is presented for outstanding research in a branch of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, physics, or an allied science. Friščić’s research of solid-state reactions will impact a wide range of applications, from pharmaceuticals, metallodrugs and food chemistry, to nanomaterials, adsorbents for gas storage and separation, and cleaner exploitation of organic and mineral feedstocks.
Gwendolyn Bailey, MCIC, NSERC postdoctoral fellow at CalTech is the recipient of an Alice Wilson Award, presented for outstanding academic qualifications of a woman who is entering a career in scholarship or research at the postdoctoral level. Bailey’s research spans synthetic inorganic chemistry, mass spectrometry, and catalysis. Her doctoral research at University of Ottawa exposed modes of undesired reactivity for the dominant, highly-active ruthenium catalysts during olefin metathesis, an exceptionally powerful and “green” technology for building carbon-carbon bonds. Her postdoctoral research will synthesize new metal clusters that mimic the structure of biological active sites and explore their reactivity towards small molecules relevant to sustainability.