Dr. Rebecca Melen from Cardiff University, UK, wins UniCat’s Clara Immerwahr Award 2016 for outstanding achievements in catalysis research.
Dr. Rebecca Melen
The prestigious award recognizes the outstanding achievements of female scientists at an early career stage of their research.
Dr. Melen, a lecturer in inorganic chemistry from the School of Chemistry, has been awarded for her contributions to the field of main group elements in catalysis. The award has recognized Dr. Melen’s work on the main group elements of the periodic table, and how they can be used to drive reactions that are normally catalysed by heavier transition metal catalysts. She will be awarded €15,000 to cover a research stay at UniCat in Berlin in 2016.
Professor Ulla Wollenberger of the UniCat Committee for the Clara Immerwahr Award says: “We are glad that with Rebecca Melen we have found a worthy recipient who has already published a large number of widely regarded research papers. We are convinced that the award will initiate incredibly fruitful collaborations in the area of catalysis”.
On receiving the award, Dr. Melen said: “I am thrilled to hear that I have been honored with the Clara Immerwahr Award. The award provides a great opportunity to study at the UniCat Cluster of Excellence in Berlin where I will explore some new avenues of research. As a previous Humboldt Fellow in Heidelberg, I will enjoy the opportunity to engage with colleagues at UniCat and look forward to immersing myself in the local German culture and developing my language skills further.”
Professor Rudolf Allemann, Head of the School of Chemisty, said: “I was absolutely delighted to learn of Dr. Melen’s success in receiving the Clara Immerwahr Award. This award, which recognizes Dr. Melen’s outstanding results in catalysis research, also underlines Cardiff’s strength in catalysis, as demonstrated by the Cardiff Catalysis Institute and our participation in the Catalysis Doctoral Training Centre. Notably, this is the second time that a young female researcher from our School of Chemistry has received this award, with Dr. Jennifer Edwards winning the award in 2013.”
The Clara Immerwahr Award is named after the highly talented young researcher who became the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in physical chemistry at a German university.
Dr. Melen will be honored during a public ceremony February 12, 2016, which will also involve a guest lecture held by the internationally renowned female scientist, Prof Dr. Katharina Al-Shamery.
Dr. Melen has also won the 2013 RSC Dalton Young Researcher award and the 2014 European Young Researcher Award.
More about the Clara Immerwahr Awardee 2016.