Division Awards

The Inorganic Division presents two awards at each National Meeting of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry, including National Conventions in which the Division of Inorganic Chemistry is a participant. These are the Burrows Award and the Stranks Awards. In addition, the Alan Sargeson Lectureship is awarded between National Meetings.

The Burrows Award

The 25th Inorganic Award of the RACI, the Burrows Award, is to be presented at IC13, the RACI Inorganic Chemistry Division meeting to be held in Brisbane from 8-12 December 2013.

The Award commemorates George Joseph Burrows (1888-1950). Burrows was appointed to the staff of the University of Sydney in 1919 and made important contributions to coordination chemistry during the following twenty-one years, especially in the field of metal-tertiary arsine complexes. Collaborators of Burrows included E.E. Turner, Sir Ian Wark and Sir Ronald Nyholm. Burrows was the Royal Society of New South Wales' Liversidge Lecturer in 1940.

The Award is based on consideration of the candidate’s scientific work published in the past 10 years, together with other evidence of his or her standing in the international community. A major portion of the relevant scientific work must have been carried out in Australia and/or New Zealand.

Candidates, who must be financial members of the Institute or of the NZIC at the time of nomination, may apply personally or be nominated by other members of the Institute. Proposals should contain the following information: a brief curriculum vitae; a list of publications for the past 10 years (2003 to the time of the nomination) for which there has been a significant contribution to the field of inorganic chemistry; reprints of no more than 10 of the most significant of these publications; and any supporting information that could be helpful to the Selection Committee. Nominees should also arrange for two independent testimonials to be forwarded to the Division Secretary.

The Award will consist of a citation and a metal sculpture, free registration at IC13, a return economy airfare to Brisbane from the awardee's home city and $750 towards accommodation expenses (if the awardee is not a resident of Brisbane).

Electronic nominations should be forwarded to the Division Secretary, A/Prof. Marcus Cole (School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales) via m.cole@unsw.edu.au, by 5pm Friday 31 May 2013. Please ensure that nominations contain the words RACI BURROWS in the email subject line.

Previous winners

• A. M. Sargeson (1975)
• D. R. Stranks (1977)
• R. L. Martin (1978)
• H. C. Freeman (1980)
• B. O. West (1981)
• C. J. Hawkins (1982)
• D. L. Kepert (1984)
• B. N. Figgis (1986)
• M. A. Bennett (1987)
• M. I. Bruce (1989)
• L. F. Lindoy (1991)
• W. R. Roper (1992)
• C. L. Raston (1994)
• I. G. Dance (1996)
• R. Robson (1998)
• D. A. Buckingham (1999)
• A. M. Bond (2000)
• P. A. Lay (2001)
• K. S. Murray (2003)
• A. H. White (2005)
• G. B. Deacon (2007)
• M. G. Humphrey (2008)
• A. G. Wedd (2010)
• C. Jones (2011)

The Alan Sargeson Lectureship

The RACI Inorganic Chemistry Division offers a prestigious early career researcher award in the form of a lectureship that acknowledges significant and innovative individual contributions to the field by researchers within ten years of the award of their PhD at the closing date for applications.

1. The Award is open to any researcher who is an Australian or New Zealand national, or has Permanent Resident status, and is based on research undertaken predominantly in Australia or New Zealand.

2. Nominees must be financial members of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute or the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry at the time of nomination.

3. The Award consists of travel funding to enable the recipient to undertake a lecture tour of Australian and New Zealand University Chemistry Departments and/or other research institutions. There is to be no geographical restriction to the tour, and the recipient will be expected to travel to all Departments/Institutions that choose to host the Lecture. Host institutions are expected to meet accommodation and subsistence costs for the visit.

4. Applications are by nomination only. Nominees are required to supply a detailed CV (with publications or other evidence of research output, and names and addresses of three referees). As part of the nomination, nominees should supply the title and abstract of the talk that would be given if the application was successful.

Electronic nominations should be forwarded to the Division Secretary, A/Prof. Marcus Cole (School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales) via m.cole@unsw.edu.au, by 5pm Friday 31 May 2013. Please ensure that nominations contain RACI SARGESON in the email subject line.

Previous winners

• C. J. Kepert (2006)
• P. S. Donnelly (2008)
• A. Stasch (2010)

The Awards are to be decided by sub-committees appointed by the Divisional Committee and chaired by the Divisional Chairman, comprising representatives appointed from within the Divisional Committee as well as appropriate additional persons from outside that Committee to give it wide representation. It is the responsibility of the Divisional Committee to ensure that there is no conflict of interest in terms of collaborative research involvement or institutional bias.

The Don Stranks Awards

Don Stranks was a leading member of the Australian and international inorganic chemistry community. Prior to his appointment as Vice Chancellor of the University of Adelaide, Don Stranks had been Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Adelaide and Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at The University of Melbourne. The Don Stranks Awards commemorate his substantial contribution to inorganic chemistry in Australia, and particularly his nurture and encouragement of students. The Don Stranks Awards are open to student members of the RACI and affiliated societies, and recognize outstanding performance in research within a current PhD candidature. The Awards are made at National Conferences of the Inorganic Chemistry Division. The next such conference is IC13 in Brisbane, 8-12 December 2013.

1. Student members of the RACI (or an affiliated society) attending a National Conference of the Inorganic Chemistry Division should indicate that they wish their work to be considered for the Awards when submitting their poster abstract for the conference.

2. There is a limit of one application per student delegate.

3. A short list of up to six students will be selected. Shortlisted students will have their registration costs reimbursed.

4. As well as a poster presentation, each student will present their work in a special session of the conference program.

5. There will be two Don Stranks Awards per conference, each with a cash prize of $300.

Previous winners

2000
Vivienne Monk (University of Sydney)
Matthew Byrnes (Australian National University)

2003
Tom Waters (University of Melbourne)
Deanna D'Alessandro (James Cook University)

2005
Karena Chapman (University of Sydney)
Rebecca Warr (Australian National University)

2007
Craig Gourlay (University of Melbourne)
Lisa McClintock (University of Otago)

2008
Matthias Zimmerman (University of Melbourne)
Jonathan Kitchen (University of Otago)

2010
Alan Downward (University of Canterbury)
Reshmi Kiran (La Trobe University)

2011
Melissa V. Werrett (Curtin University)
Madleen Busse (Monash University)