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Winner of the IUPAC Prize
for Young Chemists - 2006

 

Emilio M. Pérez wins one of the five IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists, for his Ph.D. thesis work entitled "Hydrogen-bonded Synthetic Molecular Machines."

Current address (at the time of application)

Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Spain

E-mail: [email protected]

Academic degrees

  • Ph.D. School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, UK. 21 st June 2005. Chemistry
  • MSc. (Sobresaliente cum Laude) Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. 2001. Organic chemistry.
  • BSc. Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. 2000. Chemistry.

Ph.D. Thesis

Title Hydrogen-bonded Synthetic Molecular Machines

Adviser Prof. David A. Leigh, Forbes Chair of Organic Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, UK.

Thesis Committee Dr. Hon Wai Lam, Lecturer, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, UK; Prof. A. Prasanna de Silva, Chair of Organic Chemistry, Queens University, Belfast, UK.


Essay

From myosin to F1-ATPase, Nature is full of examples of molecular devices and it is no exaggeration to say that life itself ultimately depends upon them. Constructing artificial molecular-level machines would help us understand their biological counterparts. Furthermore, molecular-size devices are the next logical step forward (or downwards) in the race for miniaturization.

Initially, the term “molecular machine” was (and sometimes still is) used in a purely iconic manner: the structures looked like pieces of machinery – or they carried out a function that in the macroscopic world would require a machine to perform it. Whilst these early reports were unquestionably the key to popularising the field, we are now in the position to give ourselves a more ambitious definition. Accordingly, we can describe molecular machines as “a subset of molecular devices (functional molecular systems) in which some stimulus triggers the controlled, large amplitude mechanical motion of one component relative to another (or of a substrate relative to the machine) which results in a net task being performed.”

With the objectives outlined in that definition in mind, my thesis addressed: the search for new methods to achieve controlled submolecular motion in stimuli-responsive molecular shuttles; the development of a general design to exploit this controlled motion to produce a potentially useful response; and, remarkably, the extension of the work in solution to polymer films and surfaces....[more; pdf file - 2.89MB]

 


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