Chemist Pavle Radovanovic wins 2019 Keith Laidler Award

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Pavle Radovanovic
Professor Pavle Radovanovic has been named the winner of the 2019 Keith Laidler Award for his outstanding early-career contributions to physical chemistry in Canada.

His lab combines fundamental research, applied research and industry partnerships to investigate multifunctionality at the nanoscale and the application of multifunctional nanostructures for energy-efficient and sustainable technologies.

Last spring, Radovanovic pioneered a new way for electronic devices to process, transfer and store information faster and more efficiently than conventional semiconductors. The breakthrough in the field of spintronics was published in the academic journal, Nature Nanotechnology.

They have been successful in applied research and creating new nanomaterials, such as energy-efficient solid state lighting and photocatalysts for treating environmental contamination.

His lab devloped a new nanotech light bulb that could revolutionize energy-efficient lighting by creating pure white light from external energy sources.

Radovanovic is the third Waterloo chemist to win the award.

The award was previously held by:

  • Pierre-Nicholas Roy (2007) - Rotational Dynamics of Doped Superfluid Clusters
  • K. Tong Leung (1997) - Chemical Applications of Electron-Matter Interactions: From Probing Low-Temperature Industrial Plasmas and Atmospheric Chemistry of “Environment-Safe” Freon-Substitutes to Enhancing Novel Surface Reactions on Metals and Semiconductors

Formerly known as the Noranda Award, the Keith Laidler Award is sponsored by the Chemical Institute of Canada’s Physical, Theoretical and Computation Chemistry Division.

Radovanovic will receive his framed scroll and give a lecture in a Physical, Theoretical and Computational Symposium at the annual Canadian Society for Chemistry Conference in Quebec City this June.

Congratulations, Pavle!