Pfizer worker Emily Rose, from Margate, has been named winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemical Sciences Apprentice of the Year in recognition of brilliance in research and innovation.
Emily won the prize for outstanding contributions towards the development of synthetic routes and processes for emerging medicines and contributions to STEM activities.
She joins a prestigious list of past winners in the RSC’s prize portfolio, 60 of whom have gone on to win Nobel Prizes for their work, including 2022 Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi and 2019 Nobel laureate John B Goodenough.
Emily also received £1,000 and a trophy.
She said: “I am honoured to have been awarded Apprentice of the Year. I am very proud of the work I have done over the last five years. It is fantastic to be the second apprentice in my team to receive this prize.”
The purpose of Emily’s department at Pfizer is to work out how to manufacture the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in medicines.
APIs are made through chemical reactions starting from already available materials. Emily works in high-throughput experimentation where she runs hundreds of chemical reactions at a time, trying to find the best conditions.
She uses a variety of robots that can weigh solids, move liquids, heat, and stir. As well as using the robots to run the reactions, Emily spends time improving the robots and seeing how else they can use them.
Dr Helen Pain, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “The chemical sciences are at the forefront of tackling a range of challenges facing our world. From fundamental chemistry to cutting-edge innovations, the work that chemical scientists do has an important role to play in building our future.
“The RSC’s prizes programme enables us to reflect on and celebrate the incredible individuals and teams whose brilliance enriches our knowledge, advances our understanding, and brings new ideas and technologies that benefit society as a whole. We’re very proud to recognise the contributions of our winners.”
The Royal Society of Chemistry’s prizes have recognised excellence in the chemical sciences for more than 150 years. In 2019, the organisation announced the biggest overhaul of this portfolio in its history, designed to better reflect modern scientific work and culture.
