Professor awarded top medal for distinguished contribution to chemistry

Academic's work on photosynthesis leads to international recognition - News

Professor Jim Barber FRS from Imperial College London's Division of Molecular Biosciences has received the prestigious Wheland Medal and Award from the University of Chicago.

The medal, awarded every two years, recognises international outstanding contributions to chemistry. It is given to Professor Barber in acknowledgement of his 40 year career researching photosynthesis and the way that plants use sunlight to split water into its component parts: oxygen and hydrogen.

Professor Barber's groundbreaking work led to his team obtaining the first complete structure of Photosystem II, the complex enzyme at the heart of plants' water splitting process. This work, carried out in collaboration with Professor So Iwata, also a member of the Division of Molecular Biosciences, is paving the way for scientists to develop the technology to mimic plants' water splitting ability, allowing them to use some of the earth's 326 million cubic miles of water to create hydrogen for use as fuel.

Professor Barber explains: "My research career has involved trying to understand precisely how photosynthesis works - a process which could be harnessed to produce hydrogen to address our planet's pressing need for new and environmentally friendly sources of energy.

"I'm really pleased that the University of Chicago has chosen to recognise my research with the Wheland Medal and I'm looking forward to continuing my work on photosynthesis, a vital process which evolved to create, and now maintains, the oxygen atmosphere which sustains all life on Earth"

Professor Barber will travel to the University of Chicago next year, where he will be presented with his medal and deliver the Wheland lecture.

Earlier this year, Professor Barber was awarded the 2006 Biochemical Society Novartis Medal and Prize, and last year he won the 2005 Italgas Prize for Energy and Environment.

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