Guenther Laukien Prize Awarded to Professors Lyndon Emsley and Anne Lesage at ENC 2023
ASILOMAR, California – April 17, 2023 – At this year’s Experimental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Conference (ENC), the Guenther Laukien Prize was awarded to Professor Lyndon Emsley of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, and to Professor Anne Lesage of Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France. The Guenther Laukien Prize is awarded annually at the ENC to recognize ‘cutting-edge magnetic resonance research with a high probability of enabling beneficial new applications.
Throughout his career, Professor Emsley has advanced NMR techniques for investigating the structures and dynamics of complex molecular systems and materials. His pursuits have ranged across disciplines, with the aim of resolving a broad spectrum of issues. Lyndon's research has resulted in significant strides, due to his innovative concepts in NMR spectroscopy that have improved sensitivity and resolution. Notably, he has made remarkable progress in applying dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) to problems related to materials research. Lyndon has also developed methods for high-resolution 1H spectra in solids by introducing the DUMBO family of decoupling sequences. Lyndon has devised novel multi-dimensional correlations, which depend primarily on scalar couplings in solids. His most recent breakthroughs include the development of computational techniques for predicting and extracting NMR chemical shifts in solids and modeling structure efficiently.
Professor Lesage has made numerous exceptional scientific contributions in the field of scalar-based solid-state NMR methods. She successfully demonstrated the feasibility of J-coupling based INADEQUATE-type experiments in rigid solids, even in disordered systems where linewidths exceed J coupling values by orders of magnitude. Furthermore, she has been investigating the causes of line broadening in solids, developing innovative techniques to enhance proton resolution. Anne has played a key role in DNP, and has pioneered its application to the study of functionalized surfaces. Her experiments have led to significant sensitivity gains in both porous and non-porous materials, providing new insights through solid-state NMR. These advances have opened up avenues for investigating structures of metal organic frameworks, pharmaceuticals, colloids, polymer thin films, and others. Lesage is also developing new DNP polarizing agents at high field and fast magic angle spinning. She innovates strategies to selectively probe the 3D structure of supported organometallic catalysts in complex, multisite environments. This has led to the discovery of unexpected coordination geometries that do not have an equivalent in homogeneous catalysis.
About Bruker Corporation
Bruker is enabling scientists to make breakthrough discoveries and develop new applications that improve the quality of human life. Bruker’s high performance scientific instruments and high value analytical and diagnostic solutions enable scientists to explore life and materials at molecular, cellular and microscopic levels. In close cooperation with our customers, Bruker is enabling innovation, improved productivity and customer success in life science molecular and cell biology research, in applied and pharma applications, in microscopy and nanoanalysis, as well as in industrial applications. Bruker offers differentiated, high-value life science and diagnostics systems and solutions in preclinical imaging, clinical phenomics research, proteomics and multiomics, spatial and single-cell biology, functional structural and condensate biology, as well as in clinical microbiology and molecular diagnostics. For more information, please visit: www.bruker.com.
Media Contact:
Markus Ziegler
Sr. Director and Head of Group Marketing
Bruker BioSpin
T: +49 172 3733531
E: pr@bruker.com