Molecular Magnetism group win two major international prizes

11 Jul 2019

Professor David Collison and Dr Nick Chilton from the School of Chemistry have both won major international prizes

Two academics from the School of Chemistry's Molecular Magnetism group, Professor David Collison and Dr Nick Chilton have just won international prizes. 

Professor David Collison has been announced as the winner of the 2020 Bruker Prize for EPR Spectroscopy.  

Since 1986 Bruker BioSpin has generously sponsored an annual lectureship and prize, given to a scientist who has made a major contribution to the application of EPR/ESR spectroscopy in chemical or biological systems.

Professor Collison's nomination emphasised David’s seminal contributions to experimental and theoretical fundamentals of transition metal EPR, from bioinorganic chemistry to molecular materials, including his authoritative textbook. Crucially, they also stressed his important and selfless work in developing, supporting and nurturing the EPR community throughout his career.

Head of School, Professor Richard Winpenny added "This is one of the highest awards in EPR world-wide, and David will be the 35th recipient since the inaugural award in 1986, and only the 4th to hail from the UK.

This is a huge and richly deserved honour for David, one of the most selfless people I have had the pleasure of meeting, so please join me in congratulating him."

This news comes at the same time that Dr Nick Chilton has become the first UK laureate of The European Institute of Molecular Magnetism's of the seventh Olivier Kahn International Award.

Dr Chilton, has made original contributions in the field of molecular nanomagnets to understand and then to enhance their memory effects. Among his major achievements, he provided a foundation for modelling the electronic structure of paramagnetic complexes, toward a rigorous understanding of factors governing magnetic anisotropy and slow magnetic relaxation of single molecule magnets (SMM), which led to the discovery of a dysprosocenium complex that exhibits a magnetic blocking temperature greater than 50 K - much higher than had been observed previously for a SMM -, approaching the so-called “liquid nitrogen ceiling”, when applications become feasible.