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Bader Award for Chemistry Innovation
This award celebrates the next generation of leaders in chemistry research.
About the award
Established in 2005 as the Alfred R. Bader Award for Student Innovation, this award continues as the Bader Award for Chemistry Innovation. The Bader Award continues the legacy of the co-founder of the Aldrich Chemical Company, Alfred R. Bader, defined by his committment to education and students. Using his success as a chemist, entrepreneur, and art collector Alfred R. Bader funded scholarships, strengthened universities, and inspired future generations. Following a series of mergers, the Aldrich Chemical Company transitioned into Sigma-Aldrich, which is now a part of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
How does it work?
The Bader Award 2026 is a chance to win 1,000 EUR and the chance to present your research at the Curious2027 - Future Insight conference (flight and accomodation provided).
Eligibility:
- To be eligible, a participant must be enrolled as a graduate student, with no degree conferred before October 1st 2026. Please refer to the Terms & Conditions for more information on eligibility.
Application process:
- Complete the online registration form and accept the Terms & Conditions.
- Application Deadline: October 1st, 2026
- Winners present their research at the Curious2027 - Future Insight conference currently scheduled to take place July 7th- 8th 2027 in Heidelberg, Germany.
2025 winners
Pampa Jhariat, Vellore Institute of Technology, India
Research: Design, Synthesis, and Applications of Viologen-Functionalized Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs). Access to clean drinking water is an internationally recognized human right. Pampa's work on covalent organic frameworks (COFs) has potential applications from renewable energy to environmental remediation. Judges were particularly impressed by the development of a pure monolithic COF system that could be used to effectively adsorb toxic oxoanions such as MnO₄⁻ and chromate ions from water streams, as well as viologen-based COF systems capable of removing organic dyes (such as methyl orange and fluorescein) with impressive efficiency from water streams.
Jeff Guo, École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Research: Generative Small Molecule Design with Steerable and Granular Synthesizability Control. Jeff's research focuses on developing effective models for AI-guided reaction design for small molecule synthesis and drug discovery. His impressive work includes developing models that can generate molecules satisfying multi-parameter drug discovery optimization tasks that can also take into account synthesizability utilizing retrosynthesis models, as well as developing a novel reward function capable of utilizing chemistry principles to transform a sparse reward function into a dense and learnable reward function.
Zining Zhang, University of Chicago, USA
Research: Carbonyl-to-Sulfur Swap Enabled by Sequential Double Carbon−Carbon Bond Activation. One holy grail in the C–C bond activation field is the direct replacement of the carbonyl group in readily available cyclic ketones with heteroatoms (nitrogen, oxygen, or sulfur). By utilizing a specifically designed N′-alkyl-hydrazonamide (NAHA) reagent, Zining can homolytically cleave both α-C−C bonds of ketone substrates, which after a subsequent radical trapping with a heteroatom source (e.g. Ts−S−Ts for sulphur) can lead to a range of potentially useful molecules. The application of this research is late-stage skeletal editing and functionalization of complex bioactive molecules, for more effective molecular diversification in drug discovery.
Awardees
| Year | Name | University |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Pampa Jhariat | Vellore Institute of Technology, India |
| Zining Zhang | University of Chicago, USA | |
| Jeff Guo | École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland | |
| 2024 | Priyavrat Vashisth | University of Mississippi , Tanner Group , USA |
| Veronica Pereira | Nanyang Technological University , Lee group, Singapore | |
| Julian Löffler | Ruhr-Universitat-Bochum , Gessner Group , Germany | |
| 2023 | Shivaani Gandhi | Princeton University, USA |
| Jonas Goebel | Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany | |
| 2021 | Isabelle Leibler | Princeton University, USA |
| Mauro Mato | ICIQ Institute of Chemical Research at Catalonia, Spain | |
| Rachel Knapp | UCLA, USA | |
| Rui Zhang | University of Chicago, USA | |
| 2019 | Michael Crocker | Vanderbilt University, USA |
| Lucas Hernandez | University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA | |
| Joseph Dennis | MIT, USA | |
| Samantha Green | The Scripps Research Institute, USA | |
| 2018 | Jake Ludwig | University of Michigan, USA |
| Gabriel J. Lovinger | Boston College, USA | |
| Tim Gatzenmeier | Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany | |
| Hiroki Sato | University of Texas at Austin, USA | |
| 2017 | Thomas Andrew McTeague (grand prize) | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA |
| Robynne K. Neff | University of Texas at San Antonio, USA | |
| Jennifer Keiko Matsui | University of Pennsylvania, USA | |
| Keita Tanaka | Scripps Research Institute, USA | |
| 2016 | Anthony Grillo | University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign |
| Xiaoshen Ma | Yale University | |
| Matthew Nielson | Princeton University | |
| Julian West | Princeton University | |
| Chi Zhang | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
| Raktim Roy | Yale University | |
| 2015 | Nian Liu | University of Chicago |
| Chengliang Zhu | Georgia State University | |
| Hai Dao | Scripps Research Institute | |
| Anton Toutov | California Institute of Technology | |
| Mingshou Zeng | Yale University | |
| David Kamber | University of California - Irvine | |
| 2014 | Jian He | Scripps Research Institute |
| Han Xiao | Scripps Research Institute | |
| Sandra King | Yale University | |
| Alison Wendlandt | Univerisity of Wisconsin - Madison | |
| Rana Kashif Khan | Boston College | |
| Sandra DePorter | Colorado State University | |
| Christopher Rasik | Indiana University | |
| Eric Welin | Princeton University |
Honoring innovation in chemistry
Opportunities for graduate students
Are you a trailblazer in the world of science, with a passion for innovation and a vision of a more sustainable future? By bringing together the brightest young minds in chemistry, we hope to spark new ideas and inspire visionaries to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in science.
Links
Downloads and links
| Link to online registration form | https://researchgrantsandchallenges.com/ |
|---|---|
| Terms & Conditions | download |