The McBain Medal

The McBain Medal is an annual award to honour an early career researcher or technologist who has made a meritorious contribution to colloid and interface science. The award is intended to recognise both achievement and evidence of future promise. It is named after James William McBain (more information). To be eligible, the candidate should be in the UK in the earlier stages of their career, typically within 12 years of attaining their doctorate (or equivalent degree), and will have advanced the science or technology of the field in a significant way. Follow this link for a full history of the RSC/SCI joint colloid group medals and the names behind it.

Eligibility: Significant contribution to Colloid and Interface Science within their first 12 years of active research following completion of postgraduate study. Candidates will either be based in the UK, or will at least have carried out a substantial part of their research work there.

Currently-serving members of the Joint Colloids Group Committee are not eligible for the award.

Previously, the McBain medal was open to candidates within their 15 years after completion of postgraduate study. This is to ensure that the focus of the McBain Medal is on early caereer researchers. We understand that this may result in potential candidates who would have previously been eligible for the next few years no longer being so, therefore we encourage any proposers who may have been considering nominating in the next few years to bring their submission forward. Only for 2025, we will consider early career candidates who would have been eligible under the old rules but are not under the new rules.

As ever we encourage applications from a diverse range of candidates, including those in both academic and industrial employment.

Award Information

Type: Early Career.
Frequency: Annual.
Deadline for nominations: 15th November (annually).
Nominators: CSCG and CISG members.
Contact: Awards Coordinator (see Contacts page or e-mail:craig.fairgrieve@uk-cpi.com)
Further information and a link to the on-line nomination form can be found at this link.

Recipients

2006	Dr Julie MacPherson, University of Warwick
2007	Prof Andrew Cooper, University of Liverpool
2008	Dr Fernando Bresme, Imperial College London
2009	Dr Peter Dowding, University of Leeds / Infineum
2010	Dr Alex Routh, University of Cambridge
2011	Prof Adam Lee, University of Cardiff
2012	Dr Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy, University of Reading
2013	Dr Oren Scherman, University of Cambridge
2014	Prof Rachel O’Reilly, University of Warwick
2015	Prof Giuseppe Battaglia, University College London
2016	Dr João Cabral, Imperial College London
2017	Dr Rico Tabor, Monash University
2018	Dr Valeria Garbin, Imperial College London
2019	Prof Roel Dullens, University of Oxford
2020	Dr Jerry Heng, Imperial College London
2021	Prof. Matthew Gibson, University of Warwick
2022	Prof. Rachel Evans, University of Cambridge
2023	Prof. Jason Zhang, University of Birmingham
2024	Prof. Anwesha Sarkar, University of Leeds

Membership

You can become a member by joining one of the two groups:

SCI Colloid & Surface Chemistry Group (CSCG). http://www.soci.org/Membership-and-Networks/Technical-Groups/Colloid-and-Surface-Chemistry-Group

RSC Colloid & Interface Science Group (CISG). http://www.rsc.org/membership/networking/InterestGroups/colloidscience/

The former is open to SCI members only. The latter is open both to RSC members and associates AND to scientists and engineers who belong, either, to a chartered professional or learned body from outside the chemical sciences, or to another chemical society with whom the RSC has entered into an international partnership agreement approved by RSC Council. Non-RSC members of CISG pay RSC a small annual fee to cover administration and postage.

For information on how to become a member of the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) or Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) please see the links below:

http://www.soci.org/Membership-and-Networks http://www.rsc.org/Membership/join/admission/index.asp

Non-members of RSC wishing to join CISG should contact the RSC Membership Dept. (contact details at http://www.rsc.org/Membership/join/admission/Contacts.asp), asking to join the Colloid & Interface Science Interest Group, only, and mentioning their own affiliation. The membership administration fee is £10 currently. In case of difficulty please contact a member of the Joint Committee.