Recognizing the inventor of bioorthogonal chemical reactions
Carolyn Bertozzi, Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University, California, was awarded the prestigious 2020 Chemistry for the Future Prize, rebranded in 2024 as the Ernest Solvay Prize. She took the honors for her work on chemical reactions in living cells — work that could help diagnose and treat numerous diseases, including cancer.
Honoring the legacy of Ernest Solvay
The Ernest Solvay Prize by Syensqo is awarded every two years to honor outstanding achievements in fundamental science. True to the legacy of Syensqo’s founder, Ernest Solvay, the prize recognizes discoveries that support the advancement of chemistry and serve human progress.
It was Ernest Solvay who declared, “from science will derive the progress of mankind”. He also created the Solvay Conferences, gathering the most brilliant scientific minds of the early 20th century in the same room. His dedication to the impact of fundamental research is the driving force behind the Ernest Solvay Prize, which rewards researchers whose findings contribute to breakthroughs in science.
The Prize also reinforces our desire to connect Syensqo’s teams with academia and fundamental scientific research. True to our roots, Syensqo has a reputation as a respected and trustworthy partner in science; one that recognizes the role of chemistry in solving the world’s major challenges and doesn’t limit our vision and interests to our specific business activities.
“This prize honors the inventors, the fundamental researchers, the people who are rethinking mechanisms and dynamics,” says Ilham Kadri, former Syensqo CEO. “Having that fundamental thinking about how to reinvent chemistry at the service of humanity is definitely important for Syensqo.”
Rewarding the risk-takers
Created in 2013, the Ernest Solvay Prize includes a €300,000 award. The prize winner is selected by an independent jury of six renowned scientists, including a Nobel laureate.
“If you reward somebody who has been working very hard, who is trying something new, you’re rewarding a risk-taker,” says Jean-Marie Solvay, President of the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry. This is the type of researchers the Prize is designed to honor.
Professor Bertozzi became the fourth laureate of the Prize, following Professor Peter G. Schultz in 2013, Professor Ben Feringa in 2015 and Professor Susumu Kitagawa in 2017.
Ilham Kadri said about this groundbreaking female scientist: “I am both inspired by her fabulous work and proud to grant her this award. We firmly believe that her work marks a spectacular, original advancement in chemistry, with likely life-saving applications.”
This prize honors the inventors, the fundamental researchers, the people who are rethinking mechanisms and dynamics,
New therapeutics and diagnostics
Carolyn Bertozzi is a pioneer in chemical biology. The Prize recognizes her work on bioorthogonal chemical reactions, a term she coined in the early 2000s to describe chemical coupling reactions that can take place within living cells without toxic side reactions, enabling the cells to maintain their integrity.
Because they distinguish the cell without killing it, these reactions can be used to label specific molecules in the cells for imaging or to monitor molecular changes due to disease progression. This opens new possibilities to develop advanced therapeutics and diagnostics, particularly in cancers and infectious diseases.
A legacy of Nobel laureates
Professor Bertozzi received her prize during a ceremony held on March 10, 2020, at the Palais des Académies in Brussels and in the presence of Belgium’s King Philippe and Syensqo’s CEO at the time, Ilham Kadri.
Other prominent figures and long-time partners also attended, to celebrate science and Bertozzi’s outstanding research. They included Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss explorer who founded the Solar Impulse Foundation and is now working with Syensqo on the Climate Impulse project, the aforementioned Jean-Marie Solvay, and two Nobel laureates: Ben Feringa, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016 and winner of the Prize in 2015, and François Englert, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013.
In 2022, Bertozzi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, providing further recognition of the impact of her research.
