欧美AV

Guidelines for nominators

• Nominations open 18 October.
• Nominations close 18 January, 17:00 GMT.
• Reference deadline 25 January, 17:00 GMT.
• Both 欧美AV members and non-members can nominate for this prize.
• Nominees may NOT nominate themselves.
• We will not consider nominations of deceased individuals.
• Nominees can only be considered for one of our Research & Innovation Prizes in any given year. In a case where a nominee is nominated for more than one prize independently, 欧美AV staff will ask the nominee which prize they would like to be considered for.
• Individuals named in any of the following roles during the nomination and judging period are not eligible to nominate, be nominated or provide a reference:
  
  • Materials Chemistry Prize Committee members
  • 欧美AV Subject Community Presidents
  • 欧美AV Prize Committee members
  • Trustees of the 欧美AV
  • 欧美AV staff

• Nominees must have carried out their pure or applied work in the field of porous inorganic materials in an institution in the UK or the Republic of Ireland.
• Nominees should be an early career scientist, typically with no more than 10 years of full-time equivalent professional experience.
• This should be experience gained as part of a scientific career excluding time spent in full-time education. Time spent as a postgraduate student should not be included e.g. Masters, PhD. Time spent as a post-doctoral researcher should be included.
• Nominators will be asked to provide details of the nominee's professional experience, in relation to the above criteria (see below).
• Career breaks will be taken into consideration, and applications are particularly encouraged from those whose career has spanned a break due to caring responsibilities or personal circumstances e.g. a period of parental/adoption leave, family commitments, illness, or other exceptional circumstances.
• When nominating previous 欧美AV prize winners, please remember that a person cannot be awarded twice for substantially the same body of work.

To make a nomination, please use our online nominations system to submit the following information:

• Your name and contact details. The identity of nominators is not made known to our judging panels. The 欧美AV reserves the right to amend nominations if necessary to ensure the anonymity of the nominator.
• Your nominee's name and contact details.
• An up to date CV for the nominee (no longer than one A4 side, 11pt text) which should include a summary of their education and career, and a maximum of 5 relevant publications or patents.
• Brief details (up to 150 words) of your nominee’s professional experience, in relation to the career stage-related eligibility criteria detailed above. Please include details of any career breaks or periods of absence that you feel that the judging committee should consider.
• A short citation describing what the nominee should be awarded for. This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence.
• A supporting statement (up to 750 words) addressing the selection criteria. Our guidance for nominators page has more information on writing this supporting statement.
• A statement (up to 100 words) describing how your nominee has contributed more broadly to the scientific community. A list of possible examples is outlined in the ‘selection criteria’ tab.

The 欧美AV reserves the right to rescind any prize if there are reasonable grounds to do so. All nominators will be asked to confirm that to the best of their knowledge there is no impediment, relating to professional conduct, to their nominee receiving this prize. All prize winners will be asked to sign the 欧美AV’s Code of Conduct Declaration for Recognition.

Selection Criteria and Judging Panel

Our selection committees base their evaluations on the overall quality of relevant contributions and achievements by nominees, in relation to the selection criteria listed below.

The scientific content of any supporting publications, as described in the supporting statement, is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it is published.

The selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations for this prize:

• Originality of research
• Impact of research
• Quality of publications and/or patents and/or software
• Innovation
• Professional standing
• Independence
• Collaborations and teamwork
• Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator

In an instance where multiple nominees are judged equally meritorious in relation to the above criteria, judging panels have the flexibility to use information provided by the nominator on the nominee’s broader contribution to the chemistry community as an additional criterion.

Examples of relevant contributions could include, but are not limited to:

• Involvement with 欧美AV member groups/networks
• Teaching/demonstrating
• Effective mentorship
• Service on boards, committees or panels
• Leadership in the scientific community
• Peer-reviewer
• Promotion of diversity and inclusion
• Advocacy for chemistry
• Public engagement and outreach

Materials Chemistry Prize Committee

• Magda Titirici, Imperial College London (Chair) 
• Rachel Evans, University of Cambridge
• Marina Freitag, Newcastle University
• Andrew Goodwin, University of Oxford
• Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez, University of Glasgow
• David Scanlon, University College London

History of the prize

First awarded in 1983, the Barrer Award pays tribute to the memory of Richard Maling Barrer (1910-1996), the founding father of zeolite chemistry. The award, created after the 1979 Zeolites conference, is administered by the 欧美AV, the Society for Chemical Industry and the British Zeolite Association.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Barrer studied at Canterbury University before obtaining an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship in 1932 to study at the University of Cambridge for his PhD. There he joined the Colloid laboratory, where he remained until 1948, when he moved to establish a research school at Aberdeen. In 1954 he moved again to Imperial where he remained for the rest of his career.

Barrer is credited with establishing the field of zeolite research and its applications in industry. He developed a synthesis programme with the Union Carbide Corporation, and 1957 saw the building of the first manufacturing plant using zeolite catalysts. In addition to his extensive work on zeolites, Barrer published dozens of papers in very different fields, including polymer membranes and molecular transport in microporous media. 

Honorary degrees from Bradford and Aberdeen, and a special issue of the Journal of Membrane Science in 1983 dedicated to Barrer recognised his contributions to chemistry. His learned society affiliations included membership of the Councils of both the 欧美AV and the Society of Chemical Industry, and Honorary President of the International Zeolite Association.