TWAS-Atta-ur-Rahman Award in Chemistry

TWAS is inviting nominations for the 2025 Award.

Nominations are accepted from TWAS members as well as science academies, national research councils, universities and scientific institutions in developing and developed countries.

Eligibility:

Eligible candidates for the 2025 Award are young chemists (not older that 45), national of a Scientifically and Technologically Lagging (STL) country, who have been living and working in an eligible country for a minimum of two years immediately prior to their nomination. All fields of Chemistry are eligible.

For a list of the 66 ST-lagging countries, please visit: The 66 S&T-lagging countries

Self nominations and nominations from jury members will not be considered. Fellows of TWAS are not eligible.

The same nominee cannot be nominated for more than one 'Fellows of TWAS Awards' in a given year. The secretariat retains the right to bring to the attention of the relevant nominators that the nomination may be suitable for another award, and the final decision whether or not to shift the nomination will be taken by the nominators themselves

Selection:

A pre-screening of the nominees will be done at TWAS, The nomination dossiers of the qualified candidates will then be submitted to jury members for their evaluation. Based on this evaluation Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman will select the winner.

How to nominate a scientist

Nominations can only be submitted electronically through the on-line platform by clicking on the “NEW NOMINATION” button at the bottom of this page.

To resume working on saved nominations, click on the "RESUME" button at the bottom of this page.

The deadline for submitting nominations is 14 March 2025, however we strongly recommend that you do not wait until the deadline but submit the nomination as early as you can to enable us to process it as quickly as possible.

Before starting compiling the nomination, PLEASE PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE MAXIMUM CHARACTERS ALLOWED.

A nomination is considered complete only if includes all of the following information/material:

• Nominator contact details;
• Nominee contact details (self nominations and nominations from jury members will not be considered) and general information on the nominee, including the country where he/she has been working and living in the past 2 years;
• Authorization from the nominee (i.e. the candidate) to process his/her personal data for the purposes of his/her nomination, in conformity to Art. 13 of the Italian Legislative Decree 196/2003. This authorization can only be submitted through the online platform. The privacy authorization form is available for download in the section ‘nominee’s personal data’. The form must be filled in and signed by the candidate and then uploaded onto the on-line platform;
• Suggested citation (15-20 words highlighting the nominee's scientific achievements in Chemistry);
• Supporting statement regarding the nominee’s contribution in Chemistry. Supporting statements should explain in detail the work performed by the candidate and its significance in the relevant scientific context. Clear reference should be made to the scientific impact of the nominee's work. Vague supporting statements will not be considered and will negatively affect the evaluation;
• Clear and detailed account of any time spent abroad by the nominee in the past two years;
• PhD: information on subject area, year and awarding institution;
• Brief information on membership in academies and societies;
• Brief information on awards and honours received;
• List of 10 most significant publications listed in an internationally acceptable format;
• The nominee's brief CV;
• The nominee's complete list of publications are also to be uploaded, separately, onto the online platform;
• The nominee's h-index in Google Scholar, and its associated number of citations.

PLEASE CHECK IF ENTERED DATA ARE VALID

In particular:

1) While filling in the form, pay attention to the requirements for each field (e.g. maximum number of characters, file type, date format, etc.)

2) Run a check using the button of the form menu to verify that mandatory fields have been filled in and the data you entered are accepted. This also saves your form.
Every time you run a check, you are taken to the last section of the form named "Submit". Use the form menu to navigate to the previous sections.

3) After you run a check, fields with NOT ACCEPTED OR MISSING DATA will be highlighted in RED.
Please note that once you have duly modified the content of one or more fields, the red highlight will not disappear until you run again a check.

For quick tips, please click on: http://onlineforms.twas.org/documents/Applicants_tutorial.pdf

Previous winners of the TWAS─Atta-ur-Rahman Award in Chemistry

2024 – Bipeen Dahal of Nepal, for his contributions to the synthesis of carbon nanomaterials, including carbon quantum dots and their composites, for applications in energy conversion and storage, as well as addressing environmental issues.

2023 –  Imalka Munaweera of Sri Lanka, for her contributions to the development of engineered inorganic nanostructures and nanofiber composites that may have multidisciplinary applications.

2022 –  Anushka Upamali RAJAPAKSHA of Sri Lanka, for her contribution to the development of a novel engineered biochar as an innovative solution to environmental challenges, particularly the remediation of contaminated soils and water.

2021 – Zubair Hasan of Bangladesh, for his contribution to the utilization of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOF)/modified MOFs for the removal of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceutical and personal care products.

2020 – Basant Giri of Nepal, for his outstanding work on the development of low-cost analytical tools for biological, chemical, environmental, and clinical applications.

2019 – Achyut Adhikari of Nepal for his work using natural products chemistry in Nepal isolating compounds from regional plants that can be utilized in medicine and/or in commercial products

2018 – Hervé Tchakouté Kouamo of Cameroon, for his contribution to the production of geopolymer cement as green materials for development.

2017 – Rémy Bertrand Teponno, Cameroon

2016 – Bijay Singh, Nepal

2015 – Mirabbos Hojamberdiev, Uzbekistan

2014 – Mohamed Fawzy Ramadan Hassanien, Egypt

2013 – Mohammad Abdul Hasnat, Bangladesh

2012 – Shamsun Nahar Khan, Bangladesh

* Notes: 

• In 2025 the age limit has been extended to 45 years.
• During the TWAS Council meeting held in Hangzhou, China, on 11 November 2019, the request by UNESCO to change the term 'prize' to 'award' for all existing and new TWAS distinctions other than medals was approved and therefore this award scheme is now called 'TWAS-Atta-ur Rahman Award'.