The award was handed out to Fred Brouwer at the annual JPA meeting on Photochemistry, held 4-6 September at Tohoku University in Sendai. His conference lecture was about ‘Molecular fluorescent probes in materials science’.

Fundamental insights

As professor in Spectroscopy and Photonic Materials Brouwer uses light to drive and study chemical reactions. By experimenting with the use of molecules as luminescent ‘nano-spies’, Brouwer provides insight into the specific properties of materials. Furthermore, in cooperation with physicists he uses such molecules to measure the forces between particles with a high degree of spatial resolution.

With his research group in Nanophotochemistry at ARCNL Brouwer investigates the fundamental mechanisms of chemical pattern formation in thin films using short wavelength UV radiation. The knowledge gained will be used to develop materials with improved properties and to explore new strategies for nanoscale pattern transfer.

JPA awards its Honda-Fujishima Lectureship Award annually to a foreign photochemist who has made significant contributions to the research field. Previous recipients include Yuan-Pern Lee (Taiwan), Thorsten Bach (Germany), Michael R. Wasielewski (USA) and Thomas J. Meyer (USA).