Elsevier announces the winner of the 5th Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, and the editors of the leading international journal Chemical Physics Letters are pleased to announce the winner of the 5th Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences. The award goes to Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas from the University of Cambridge, UK for his outstanding contributions to the fundamental understanding of the structures of solids and development and application of the concept of single-site heterogeneous catalysis.

Professor Thomas was one of the first to exploit and adapt electron microscopy as an indispensable chemical tool, of which he has since made imaginative use. His early work as a solid-state chemist was concerned with the characterization and chemical consequences of dislocations and other structural defects in molecular crystals, certain minerals and layered solids. His approach to active-site engineering recently has led to the design of numerous nanoporous single-site catalysts, where the advantages of both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis are unified.

Nobel Laureate Professor Ahmed Zewail, in whose name the Prize is honored, commented, "Professor Thomas has made major contributions to materials science, heterogeneous catalysis, and electron microscopy. I am immensely proud that John has been awarded this year's prize as I believe he is one of the greatest scientist and educators of our time."

Rob van Daalen, Publisher responsible for the Physical Chemistry portfolio of journals at Elsevier added, "For this year's edition of the Ahmed Zewail Prize we received almost twice as many nominations compared to previous years and it is good to see the increased interest in the prize. I am delighted that Professor Thomas has been selected as the 5th Ahmed Zewail Prize winner. I thank both the nominators and the leading scientists in the judging committee, who advised the journal editors in making their decision."

The Ahmed Zewail Prize consists of a monetary award of $20,000 and a medal. Sir John Thomas will present a review lecture at the Ahmed Zewail Prize Symposium on 24 March, to be held during the 2015 ACS Spring meeting, in Denver, USA. The invited speakers are: Ahmed Zewail, Michel Che, Mostafa El-Sayed and Thomas Maschmeyer.

The Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences is a biennial award sponsored by Elsevier in collaboration with the international journal Chemical Physics Letters. Named for the journal's Honorary Advisory Editor Professor Zewail, who received the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Prize is awarded to individual scientists who have made significant and creative contributions of a fundamental nature to any of the disciplines of molecular sciences.

Provided by Elsevier