Solvay launches €300,000 chemistry prize

A biennial €300,000 (£240,000) chemistry prize has been established by Belgian speciality chemical company Solvay ‘to reward a major scientific discovery that could shape tomorrow’s chemistry and help human progress’.

The new prize will displace the $200,000 prize established in 2008 by Rhodia, which was bought by Solvay for €3.4 billion in 2011.

An independent committee of 15 scientists will propose candidates, from whom a jury chaired by Håkan Wennerström, a chemistry professor at the University of Lund in Sweden, will select the winner.

The inaugural prize will be given in November 2013 in Brussels to mark the 150th anniversary of Solvay, which was founded by Ernest Solvay in 1863.