Winner of International Science and Technology Cooperation Award: Next goal is in China

Professor James Fraser Stoddart, Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry and professor at the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology of Tianjin University won the 2018 China International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, as one of five recipients among international scientists, during the 2018 National Science and Technology Award Conference held in Beijing on January 8.

Professor Stoddart said that working in Tianjin University has been of great pleasure for him.

For the award he received, he said, "I have been very fortunate to have very close collaborations with the young Chinese scientists and many senior scientists in this country. I am happy to be back here in China to receive this award."

In March of 2013, after being invited by his friend Jay Siegel, Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology of Tianjin University, Professor Stoddart visited Tianjin University for the first time. In July of 2014, Stoddart worked as a professor at TJU’s School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology. He came to Tianjin University and established a research team. He joined the "973" National Key Scientific Research Team led by Professor Siegel and became a member of the Health Science Platform of Tianjin University which was under construction at the time. In 2016, he donated his settling-in allowance of 500 thousand yuan to set up the "Stoddart Fund for Development" with the hope of recruiting more talents to Tianjin University for future research on synthetic molecules.

Now Stoddart prefers spending more time with his students. He said that his next goal is to spend more time on education at Tianjin University and the other parts of China. It is known that Stoddart will be devoted to offering opportunities for the development of the university’s Health Science Platform and improving its communication with the international community. As a "global mentor", he will also try his best to guide the professional development of young teachers in the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology. Stoddart said in an interview that he was willing to help the green development of the world and he was confident about this project.

Born in 1942, Professor Stoddart is one of the most distinguished scientists in the fields of organic supramolecular chemistry and nanoscience. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Stoddart has won more than 100 awards, including Arthur C Cope Scholar Award, given by the American Chemical Society in 1999 and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 2007 given by the World Cultural Council. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016 along with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Bernard L. Feringa, for their work on the design and synthesis of molecular machines. In the same year, he won the "Person of the Year" title of International Teachers in China. In 2017 he won the Friendship Award granted by the Chinese government.