Professors Lucia Banci and Jack Freed Awarded the Prestigious Richard R. Ernst Prize in Magnetic Resonance

GLASGOW, Scotland, – July 10, 2023 – Bruker is honored to announce that Professors Lucia Banci of Centro Risonanze Magnetiche (CERM) at the University of Florence and Jack Freed from Cornell University are this year’s winners of the esteemed Richard R. Ernst Prize in Magnetic Resonance.

Lucia Banci has made influential contributions to advance the understanding of paramagnetic NMR in general, and, more specifically, its application to intracellular transport of metal ions. Her studies on copper transport in cells and copper incorporation into target proteins permitted the rationalization of factors determining pathological states. She has also pushed the field of in-cell paramagnetic NMR to applications that include eukaryotic cells, which have allowed her to derive key insights about metalloprotein maturation and about metal ion transport in living cells.

Professor Banci stated, “I’m greatly honored to receive this prize that celebrates one of the giants of NMR and that continues to recognize the applications of NMR for the benefit of society. I’m flattered by the esteem of the colleagues of the Ernst Prize Committee and glad to now share this award with such an exceptional group of scientists. Thank you to the Cermians and all those who have supported me during my scientific adventures.”

Jack Freed has contributed significantly to the development of modern EPR. He has pioneered methods of pulsed-dipolar EPR, especially the application of electron-electron and double-quantum electron excitation methods, for the accurate measurement of distances and their distributions in the range of 1-10 nm. Freed is recognized for developing the underlying theoretical and instrumental bases of these new methods, and for their application to the study of challenging and important biological systems –including differently populated states in the photocycle of light sensitive proteins, as well as in intrinsically disordered proteins.

Professor Freed stated, “It is an honor and a pleasure to receive the Richard Ernst Prize especially since Richard and I were friends for more than 50 years!”

Lucio Frydman, Chair of the Award Committee and Professor at the Weizmann Institute said: “We are thrilled to recognize the two winners of this year’s Richard R. Ernst Prize –Professors Lucia Banci and Jack Freed. Their work in NMR and EPR spectroscopy has paved the way for much of the research that is going on in the field today, in particular in what concerns the roles played by metals in defining structure and function in biomolecular complexes.”

The Richard R. Ernst Prize was founded by EUROMAR with sponsorship by Bruker in 2016 to recognize recent beneficial methods and applications in Magnetic Resonance research. Named after the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awardee, Prof. Richard R. Ernst, for his seminal contributions to the development of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the Richard R. Ernst Prize represents a significant recognition in the field of magnetic resonance research and its practical applications.

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