Solvay announced the jury for the fifth edition of its Science for the Future Solvay Prize

Brussels, Belgium – Solvay announced the jury for the fifth edition of its Science for the Future Solvay Prize, a €300,000 award given every two years to a scientist engaged in groundbreaking research that will shape tomorrow’s science and solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The Solvay Prize laureate will be announced on January 13 and the award ceremony will be live-streamed on March 29.

The prize winner will be selected by an independent jury of renowned scientists, which include two Nobel Prize laureates: 

Sven Lidin, president of the Solvay Prize jury, professor of inorganic chemistry at Lund University;

Steven Chu, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997, former U.S. secretary of energy and professor at Stanford University;

Ben Feringa, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2016, professor at the University of Groningen, former recipient of the 2015 Solvay Prize 

Susumu Kitagawa, winner of the 2017 Solvay Prize, professor at Kyoto University;

Geraldine Lee Richmond, presidential chair in science and professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, nominated for U.S. under secretary of energy for science;

Dame Carol Vivien Robinson, Professor of Chemistry and first director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery at Oxford University.

In 1922, the company’s founder, Ernest Solvay held the first scientific conference focused on chemistry, gathering many scientists who would later become Nobel Prize laureates, to discuss new theories in micro-physics in chemistry. The prize, which will be awarded in 2022, marks the 100-year anniversary of Ernest Solvay’s first chemistry conference.  

“Solvay has a long history of promoting fundamental science, and the Solvay Prize continues this legacy,” said Patrick Maestro, member of the Académie des Technologies in France and scientific director of Solvay. “Science based innovation drives Solvay’s strategy today, and is one of Solvay’s key differentiators among its competitors.”

Created in 2013, the Solvay Prize perpetuates Ernest Solvay’s lifelong passion and support for scientific research. It rewards a single recipient for fundamental contributions to chemistry with potential industrial impact. 

The broad field of the prize covers chemistry in all its aspects, such as synthesis, materials science, soft matter, biophysics or biochemistry, chemical engineering, environmental sciences, or certain aspects of molecular biology. 

Nominations are made by members of the scientific committee for chemistry and the advisory committee (past and present) of the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, participants to the Solvay Conferences on Chemistry, members of prestigious international scientific organizations and renowned chemists.