IChF tribute to the chemical imagination: the Dream Chemistry Award

The Dream Chemistry Award (DCA) is a one-of-a-kind competition dedicated to recognizing young scientists who dream of tackling fundamental problems in chemistry and related disciplines with visionary ideas. Established in 2013 by the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IChF), the award aims to support emerging talents in realizing their scientific dreams. Since 2017, it has been organized jointly with the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague), with the finals alternating between Prague and Warsaw.

The Dream Chemistry Award empowers those pursuing scientific dreams, making it a competition like never before. The reward is for the dream itself and not for actual achievements. Distinguished scientists, including Nobel Prize Laureates, make the nominations. Projects submitted by the nominees to the competition address major global challenges, although immediate implementation potential is not required. Each project is judged on the boldness of its core idea and the innovative approaches proposed to solve the identified problems.

DCA celebrates aspiration, innovation, and the relentless spirit of discovery. As the only prestigious Polish scientific award in the chemistry field recognized worldwide, it plays a vital role in fostering collaboration among young chemists striving to bridge the knowledge gap in their fields. This unique competition attracts nominees from leading scientific institutions, creating an inspiring environment where groundbreaking ideas unfold.

The Warsaw edition of the Dream Chemistry Award trophy portrays a chemistry dream as a vapor in the process of distillation, elusive on top and condensing at the bottom. Sometimes surprising and unknown substances in their volatile phase become visible only when forming the first drop of their condensate.

This year, in December at IChF, we will witness the dream presentations of five finalists:

1. Maxx Arguilla (University of California Irvine, CA, USA): “Bioinspired Design of Atomically Precise All-Inorganic Chains for Atomic Scale Integrated Circuitry”, web profile.
2. Richard Liu (Harvard University, MA, USA): “Organic Molecules That Mimic Transition Metals for Sustainable Chemical Synthesis”, web profile.
3. Mathijs Mabesoone (Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands): “Data-Driven Evolution of Sustainable Peptide Materials”, web profile.
4. Raya Sorkin (Tel Aviv University, Israel): “Novel Non Hormonal Contraceptives”, web profile.
5. Zhiling Zheng (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA): “Programmable and Tunable Chemical Structures from Molecular Building Units”, web profile.

Learn more about the Dream Chemistry Award at https://www.dreamchemistryaward.org/.