IU professor first to receive honor from Royal Society of Chemistry

Amar Flood, assistant professor of chemistry, was named the first recipient of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Cram Lehn Pedersen Prize.

“I was over the moon,” he said. “I was surprised, happy, all those wonderful feelings.”

Flood will receive $3,200 and present an award lecture at the Sixth International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry in July.

He will also give two additional lectures. One will be in the United Kingdom and the location of the other lecture has yet to be determined, he said.

 Flood said the award recognizes the work of a young person who has contributed significantly to supramolecular chemistry,

“I am only here because of the creativity and productivity of my graduate students, post doctorates and undergraduate students,” he said. “There is no way I could have gotten this award without the work that they have done, no way at all.”

The award is named for the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners Donald Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn and Charles Pedersen.

“You carry the title, and I think the name of the award means more than anything else,” Flood said. “I am deeply honored, but I feel quite a responsibility to maintain the label and acknowledgement that comes with the award.”