Dr Matt Powner (UCL Chemistry) has been awarded the 2015 Thieme Chemistry Journal Award. The award is to recognise promising young professors at the beginning of their career and is made by the editorial boards of the journals Synlett, Synthesis, and Synfacts.
Powner works on the chemical processes that may have been involved in the emergence of life on Earth.
A chemical origin of life has been postulated in response to the biochemical unity of life. Understanding the predisposed reactivity that could have led from a chemical system to biological organisation is a question almost without parallel for the scientific understanding of the natural world.
The Powner group works towards understanding the chemical origins of life by exploring chemical selectivity and reactivity. It seeks to understand what chemical pathways could have led to biological form and function.
The Powner group also develops novel green (efficient, protecting-group-free, chromatography-free and environmentally benign) industrially applicable reaction strategies and new chemical methodologies in water.
MAPS Newsletters
The MAPS Faculty Focus is published monthly and contains news, updates, and opportunities for MAPS staff.
Open Days
The Faculty participates in a number of open days throughout the academic year, including the UCL Undergraduate Open Days and the UCL Graduate Open Day.
Friends of Out@UCL
Professor Ivan Parkin -
Dean, UCL Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
“I fully support the aims of the Friends of Out@UCL campaign. I have
personal experience of the need for such a campaign and the
difficulties that the LGBTQ+ community face.” Read more…
Snapshots from Space History
Online exhibition of historic space photos from the faculty’s planetary science archives.