Christiane Timmel awarded International EPR Society Medal
Prof Christiane Timmel receives the International EPR Society Medal at the 45th International EPR Symposium, alongside Profs Songi Han and Marina Bennati.
Congratulations to Prof Christiane Timmel, who has recently been awarded the International EPR (ESR) Society Medal in Chemistry for 2024.
The prize was awarded at the 45th International EPR Symposium, held in the Rocky Mountains. Prof Timmel gave the prize talk and a plenary lecture as part of the conference, which coincided with the 80th anniversary of the discovery of EPR.
EPR, which stands for electron paramagnetic resonance, is an experimental technique that is used to study materials containing unpaired electrons. It shares its most fundamental principles with NMR (nuclear paramagnetic resonance), and this powerful technique can be used to probe the structure and dynamics of a wide range of materials.
Prof Timmel’s research focuses on a wide range of systems including molecular wires (in collaboration with Prof Harry Anderson), lanthanide complexes (with Prof Faulkner) and the molecules with which birds may detect the Earth’s magnetic field when migrating (with Profs Hore and Mackenzie).
As described in the citation for this medal, Prof Timmel has worked to establish EPR as a gold standard technique for fundamental spin chemistry studies, as demonstrated by her seminal contributions in areas from magnetoreception to spintronics. One of her many achievements is the demonstration that “radical pairs are fit for purpose as chemical compasses and [that] light induced radical pairs in cryptochromes found in birds’ retinae are magnetosensitive”. In her talk she highlighted the importance of her collaborators and group to all research done in her laboratories.
