Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award: Matthew Gaunt

Citation: For seminal contributions to reaction development using both organic and metal catalysts.

Current position: professor of chemistry, University of Cambridge

Education: B.Sc., chemistry, University of Birmingham; Ph.D., chemistry, University of Cambridge

Gaunt on receiving this award: “This award is a great honor and is a testament to the contributions of a phenomenally talented group of students and postdoctoral researchers. They strive to make new discoveries in uncharted areas of chemical research, when at the outset we don’t necessarily know where things will go or what we will achieve. I don’t know what we will accomplish in the coming years, but we will keep enjoying our research, continue to ask new questions, try to define new problems, and then see what happens.”

What his colleagues say: “C–H activation is a rapidly evolving field that promises to have a major impact in catalysis and synthesis. Matt is a key player in this highly competitive field. Most important, he made his own distinct contributions in several directions related to both catalysis and synthetic applications of C–H activation methods.”—Jin-Quan Yu, Scripps Research Institute, California