Dr Sihai Yang awarded prize for research excellence

The School of Chemistry congratulates Dr Sihai Yang, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, who has been awarded the prestigious B T M Willis Prize for 2013 by the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry Neutron Scattering Group. The award recognises Dr Yang’s outstanding research in the application of neutron scattering science to understand gas storage and separation properties of porous materials.

The prize is named in honour of the founding chairman of the Neutron Scattering Group, Professor B T M Willis. The award is given to a young scientist in recognition of outstanding research work in the application of neutron scattering techniques to a significant problem in physics, chemistry, materials science, earth science, the life sciences, or engineering. The panel chose Dr Sihai Yang as the winner of 2013 for his research work, in collaboration with Professor Martin Schröder and scientists at ISIS Neutron Facility and Diamond Light Source, on using inelastic neutron scattering and neutron diffraction techniques to gain insight into the interactions between adsorbed gas molecules and porous framework hosts. In particular, his recent work develops the first application of inelastic neutron scattering to study the binding interaction and dynamics of adsorbed carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide molecules within a porous host NOTT-300 which was discovered in Nottingham. The results lead to the direct visualisation and understanding of the molecular mechanism by which these harmful gases (CO₂ & SO₂) are captured by NOTT-300. The results were published in the journal Nature Chemistry as front cover article (Nature Chem., 2012, 4, 887), and received media coverage in Reuters News (http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/23/us-science-carbon-emissions-idINBRE88M0BM20120923 )and many other media outlets. 

Sihai was invited to give a science lecture and presented with his award at the NMUM 2013 meeting held on 8^th April and said ‘I am honoured to receive this prestigious award and I am grateful to the selection committee for their kind remarks on my research work. I would like also to thank my collaborators in particular scientists from ISIS and Diamond for their invaluable inputs. I shall continue my research projects at these state-of-the-art central facilities in collaboration with scientists there’.