Chemical Engineering faculty and students recognized at International Symposium on Chirality
Three members of the Chemical Engineering department have been recognized for their contributions to chiral chemistry.
Three members of the Chemical Engineering department have been recognized for their contributions to chiral chemistry. Joseph B. and Florence V. Cejka Professor of Chemical Engineering Nicholas Kotov, visiting graduate student Michal Sawczyk, and post-doc Yanan Wang were recently honored with awards for their work in chiral particles and nanomaterials at the 34th International Symposium on Chirality, a global event celebrating achievements in chirality research.
Poster awards
At the symposium held in Japan, visiting graduate student Michal Sawczyk and post-doc Yanan Wang received accolades for their exceptional research poster presentations on chiral particles and advanced nanomaterials.
Sawczyk was awarded the Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan (BCSJ) Award for Poster Presentation for his work on chiral nano- and microparticles. His research, part of the Center for Complex Particle Systems (COMPASS) project, aims to develop these particles for applications in cancer diagnosis and drug purification.
“We have developed a versatile supramolecular material whose structure can be tuned at multiple levels, much like chemical Plasticine, to create complex materials ranging from the nanometer scale to sizes visible to the naked eye,” Sawczyk said. “These structures can be used for cancer diagnosis and ultra-fast purification of peptides and proteins.”
Sawczyk’s work has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of advanced therapies involving selective protein and peptide medications, which currently cost millions of dollars per patient.
Wang, a postdoc research fellow in the Kotov Lab, received the Shimadzu Poster Award for her research on the redox reconfiguration and optical modulation of chiral vanadium oxide nanoparticles.
“This award underscores the connection between research and practical applications, motivating me to explore new horizons and seize new opportunities,” Wang said.
Her work holds promise for expanding the use of chiral nanomaterials across various industries, including biosensing and optoelectronics.
Chirality Medal
Nicholas Kotov was awarded the Chirality Medal for his contributions to the field of chiral nanostructures with giant polarization rotation. Established by the Società Chimica Italiana (SCI) in 1991, the Chirality Medal honors scientists who have made significant advances in chiral chemistry.
Kotov, a leading researcher in biomimetic nanocomposites, nanoparticle self-assembly, and chiral nanostructures, joined the University of Michigan in 2003 after earning his PhD in Chemistry from Moscow State University in 1991. Throughout his career, he has received over 60 awards for his innovative research.
Kotov is the first U-M ChE faculty member to receive the Chirality Medal.
About the International Symposium on Chirality
The International Symposium on Chirality is an annual event featuring award lectures, plenary and keynote addresses, invited talks, oral presentations, and poster sessions. It gathers leading experts from around the world to discuss the latest advancements in molecular chirality, spanning natural and synthetic small molecules, macromolecules, and supramolecules.