Cornforth Medal

The Cornforth Medal is awarded annually to a financial RACI member for the most outstanding PhD thesis submitted in a branch of chemistry, chemical science or chemical technology in the previous thirteen months. The medal is designed to give recognition of outstanding achievement in chemistry and to promote chemical communication. The medal bears the profile of Sir John Cornforth AC CBE FRS and the words “For a Thesis on Chemical Research”.

Dr. Junming Ho

A young contributor to the organic field

Dr. Junming Ho earned the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 2011 for his thesis entitled “Predicting pKa: Theory and Applications”. His work was a thesis by publication and featured a total of 8 peer-reviewed journal articles covering both theoretical procedures for predicting the pKa values of organic compounds. Prior to his work there was no agreement in the literature as to the best protocols to use and the typical errors in theoretical calculations were very large, particularly for weak acids and species for which non-covalent solute-solvent interactions were possible. Junming tackled this difficult problem and designed accurate methods that could rival experiment. He also used his methodology to study and explain the effects of substituents on the acidity of weak carbon peptide acids and related peptide radicals.

Among other contributions he showed that electron-withdrawing substituents and hydrogen bonding at the amide nitrogen of peptides could increase the acidity of the alpha-carbonyl CH protons to the extent that the carbon acidity of some N-substituted amides exceeds that of typical ketones. On the basis of his computational results he then exploited them in the design of a chiral auxiliary capable of resolving racemic amino acids and demonstrated its effectiveness experimentally.

His PhD research resulted in eight first-author publications in highly regarded international journals, including two featured articles, one of which is the most cited paper in Theoretical Chemistry Accounts for 2010–11. To date, he has 14 publications and one book chapter to his name, and his work has garnered more than 150 citations collectively. Dr Ho was awarded the Director’s Prize for the Best Thesis in Chemistry for 2011 in the Research School of Chemistry.