18 October 2012
RSC President Professor Lesley Yellowlees has been awarded the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland's Annual Award for Chemistry for 2012.
The award is made each year to a distinguished chemist with an international reputation, who is able to relate and communicate the importance of chemistry and chemical research to everyday life. The recipient is invited to present the annual Eva Philbin Lecture Series - a series of keynote lectures in education institutions across Ireland.
Eva Philbin was the first woman president of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland. She began her career as a chemist in industry in 1939, and was chief chemist at two commercial companies before joining the chemistry department at University College Dublin in 1945.
She was made professor of organic chemistry in 1963 and published around 90 papers on flavonoids as a result of her research, as well as nurturing the careers of students who were to prove central to the development of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Ireland.
Professor Yellowlees presented the Eva Philbin Lecture Series on solar power and the pivotal role of chemistry in our past, present and future in Galway, Maynooth and Dublin last week.
On receiving the award, she commented: "I am delighted to have been given this honour by the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland. Eva Philbin was an inspirational chemist who had a highly successful career at a time when women scientists were not as prolific in industry and universities as they are today.
"She played a key role in supporting and growing the chemistry community in Ireland and I am proud to have presented these lectures in her honour."
