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2012 Award Winners
Congratulations to the four winners of the 2012 CNC-IUPAC Travel Awards:
Fraser Hof, University of Victoria
Fraser Hof is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and the Canada Research Chair in Supramolecular and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Victoria. His group operates a two-pronged research program. The first thrust of their research is to study the fundamental properties of protein-protein interactions, and the second is to create synthetic disruptors of certain protein-protein interactions that are known to drive particularly aggressive cancers. The group uses synthetic chemistry, molecular design by computational modelling, and a variety of biophysical assays for determining the activities of synthesized compounds. These efforts are anchored by a basic understanding of the chemical and physical properties of the molecules involved. The CNC-IUPAC Travel Award will fund Dr. Hof’s attendance at the International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry in Durham, UK, in September 2012.
Eric Rivard, University of AlbertaEric Rivard completed his undergraduate studies at the University of New Brunswick in 1999, and obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto (2004) under the supervision of Prof. Ian Manners. After completing NSERC postdoctoral fellowships at Caltech and UC Davis, and a research fellowship at Monash University, he joined the faculty at the University of Alberta in 2008. His research program is centered on fundamental synthetic inorganic chemistry with a focus on the stabilization of reactive intermediates/new bonding environments across the period table, and the generation of new polymeric materials for photovoltaic applications. The CNC-IUPAC travel award will be used to attend the 10th International Conference on Heteroatom Chemistry in Kyoto, Japan, May 20-25th, 2012.
Robert Scott, University of SaskatchewanRobert Scott received his BSc at the University of Western Ontario in 1995 and his PhD at the University of Toronto in 2002 under the direction of Geoffrey Ozin. Following that, he was a postdoctoral associate in the laboratory of Richard Crooks at Texas A&M from 2002-2004. Since 2005, his group in the Department of Chemistry at University of Saskatchewan has been studying the rational design of highly-efficient and selective catalysts through the control of size, shape, structure and composition of nanoparticles. This work is focused on the development of green catalytic routes which minimize waste of hazardous materials and solvents and attain a high atom economy for expensive noble metal catalysts. With the support of the 2012 CNC-IUPAC Travel Award, he will attend the 4th International IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistry in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil in August 2012.
Mark Taylor, University of TorontoMark Taylor received his B.Sc. in chemistry in 2000 from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. in 2005 from Harvard University, where he worked in the labs of Prof. Eric Jacobsen. His postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology involved the synthesis of new types of conjugated polymers in the group of Prof. Timothy Swager. In July 2007, he returned to the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry. His current research interests are at the interface of the areas of catalysis and molecular recognition, and include catalyst-controlled functionalization of sugars, fundamental studies of ‘halogen bonding’ interactions, and new anion-responsive molecules and materials. The 2012 CNC-IUPAC Travel Award will enable Prof. Taylor to present his group’s research at the 26th International Carbohydrate Symposium in Madrid, Spain in July, 2012.
