University Professor Douglas Stephan wins John C. Polanyi Award

University Professor Douglas Stephan of the University of Toronto's department of chemistry has been awarded the John C. Polanyi Award by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Named after U of T University Professor and Nobel Prize-winner John Polanyi, the award recognizes a Canadian-based individual or team whose research has led to a recent, outstanding advance in the natural sciences or engineering.

Stephan, who is internationally recognized for his work in inorganic chemistry, was honoured for his work in frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs), with NSERC noting that he “took a 100-year-old chemistry process and redesigned it into something cheaper, more efficient and more environmentally friendly.”

Stephan said the Polanyi Award feels different than his other honours because he has come to know Polanyi as a colleague and admires him greatly.

Read the story at U of T News