The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) announced the winners of the 2009 IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists awarded for the best Ph.D. theses in the chemical sciences as described in 1000-word essays.
 
The five winners are:
 
Faisal A. Aldaye, McGill University, Montréal, Canada
Christopher Bettinger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Xinliang Feng, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany
Xing Yi Ling, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Shengqian Ma, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA
  
The winners will each receive a cash prize of USD 1000 and travel expenses to the IUPAC Congress, 2-7 August 2009, in Glasgow, Scotland. Each prizewinner will also be invited to present a poster at the IUPAC Congress describing his/her award winning work and to submit a short critical review on aspects of their research topics to be published in Pure and Applied Chemistry. The awards will be presented to the winners of the 2008 and 2009 prizes during the Opening Ceremony of the Congress.
 
The essays describing the 2009 winners' theses can be found on the IUPAC web site and cover a wide range of subject matter:
 
Dr. Aldaye: Supramolecular DNA nanotechnology: Discrete nanoparticle organization, three dimensional DNA construction, and molecule-mediated DNA self-assembly
Dr. Bettinger: Synthesis and Microfabrication of Elastomeric Biomaterials for Advanced Tissue Engineering Scaffolds
Dr. Feng: C3-symmetric Discotic Liquid Crystalline Materials for Molecular Electronics: Versatile Synthesis and Self- organization
Dr. Ling: From Supramolecular Chemistry to Nanotechnology: Assembly of 3D Nanostructures
Dr. Ma: Gas Adsorption Applications of Porous Metal-Organic Frameworks
 
There were 36 applications from 19 different countries. The Prize Selection Committee was comprised of members of the IUPAC Bureau with a wide range of expertise in chemistry. The committee was chaired by Prof. Bryan R. Henry, IUPAC Past President.
 
In view of the many high-quality applications, the Committee decided to give five Honorable Mention awards to:
 
Ludovico Cademartiri, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Alexandre Côté, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
Jason Philip Holland, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
David J. Payne, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Yu Zhang, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China
 
The recipients of Honorable Mention Awards will receive a cash prize of USD 100 and a copy of Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, the IUPAC Green Book. Applications for the 2010 Prizes are now being solicited, as described on the IUPAC web site <www.iupac.org>.