Congratulations to Xiaojiao Liu, a PhD student in the Pulham group, who was awarded the Young Scientist Poster Award at the 2016 IUCr High-Pressure Workshop held in South Korea. 

Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart, Professor Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Professor Bernard L Feringa have been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on molecular machines.

Professer Sir Fraser Stoddart studied Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, receiving his undergraduate degree in 1964 and his PhD in 1966. He was also awarded a DSc degree by the University in 1980 for his research into stereochemistry beyond the molecule, was named Edinburgh's Alumnus of the Year in 2005 and knighted in 2006.

Congratulations to Dr Scott Cockroft on being awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize.

The £100,000 award is for his work on answering fundamental questions regarding the nature of molecular interactions and chemical reactivity.

Congratulations to two students from the OPTIMA Doctoral Training Centre who were finalists in the recent MRC Max Perutz Scientific Writing Award.

Katie Ember, from Dr Colin Campbell's group, was the runner up with her article titled "Cholangiocarcinoma: The Cancer You've Never Heard Of".

Congratulations to Rowan Clark, from Professor Colin Pulham's Group, for the award of Best Presentation at the Energy Technology Partnership Conference held in Aberdeen. Her talk title was entitled "Crystallographic Studies for the Development of Next-Generation Heat-Storage Materials"

The School of Chemistry will benefit from a funding boost thanks to our involvement in the EastBio partnership. The investment will provide support for Docotral Training Partnerships and industrial CASE studentship awards. The programme is designed to provide research training in key bioscience areas, where the School of Chemistry is already a leading institution. Students will also develop excellent communication, public engagement and commercialisation skills.

Andrew Maloney, from the Parsons group, won the Industrial Crystallography Prize for best presentation at the recent British Crystallographic Association Meeting at the University of Warwick.

The meeting saw more than 50 speakers over four days, including a lecture by Dan Schectman, Nobel Prize winner for chemistry in 2011. As well as discussion sessions throughout the meeting, there was a chance for 14 young crystallographers to interact and get together, with the first day of the meeting given over to their talks.

Congratulations to Victoria Camus from Dr Colin Campbell's group who won the best student speaker prize, and to Andrew Piper of Prof. Andrew Mount's group, who won a poster prize at the RSC Butler Electrochemistry Symposium today in Glasgow University.

The one-day symposium gave researchers from across Scotland and the North of England to meet with their peers and present the results of their research in any field related to electrochemistry.

The School of Chemistry has been ranked joint fourth in the most recent Complete University Guide.

We rose one place and, along with St Andrews, are ranked the best School of Chemistry in Scotland. The league table rates Schools based on entry standards, student satisfaction, research quality and graduate prospects.

More Information

• Complete University Guide homepage

Dr Thomas has won the award for his research into highly selective iron-catalyzed hydrofunctionalization of alkenes, particularly hydrocarboxylation, and the development of a suite of easily handled iron catalysts.

The Hickinbottom Award is for researchers under the age of 35 in the field of organic chemistry. Past winners include Harry Kroto, Fred Sanger and Linus Pauling. Dr Thomas will undertake a UK lecture tour as part of the prize.