cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

ACS GCI Governing Board Member Receives Highest Honor from the Queen

ACSGCI
Honored Contributor
0 0 350

Professor Martyn Poliakoff, a distinguished advisor to the ACS Green Chemistry Institute® Governing Board, was knighted and added to the Queen Elizabeth II's New Year Honors list, January 1, 2015. Sir Martyn Poliakoff is a beloved professor of chemistry at the University of Nottingham and a well-known YouTube sensation due to his Periodic Table of Videos playlist, which has received over 80 million views.

According to Charlotte Anscombe, Media Relations and Campaign manager from The University of Nottingham, this honor was given to Poliakoff due to his services to promoting green and sustainable chemistry, as well as for his role as Vice-President and Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society. Poliakoff received his bachelor of arts degree in 1969 from King’s College, Cambridge and his doctorate in 1973. Starting as a researcher in 1972 at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and he moved to the University of Nottingham in 1979 and became a professor of chemistry in 1991. Poliakoff has served as an advisor on the ACS GCI Governing Board since 2010.

According to Brady Haran, video journalist and film-maker for the Period Table of Videos, “he has been recognized for his work with engaging the public with chemistry, including through the periodic table of videos on YouTube.” In a special video on Poliakoff’s knighthood he stated, “I think that maybe this is the first time YouTube has been mentioned when somebody has gotten a knighthood, and so I feel really quite proud about that. And I would like to thank new YouTube views who have made this possible through your enthusiasm for chemistry.”

Poliakoff gives many thanks to his colleagues, research team, technical crew and the university as a whole.

References:

Haran, B. (2014, December 31).  Arise, Sir Martyn: Knighthood for YouTube's Martyn Poliakoff Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/dec/31/arise-sir-martyn-knighthood-for-youtube...

Ansombe, C. (2014, December 30).Knighthood for Nottingham Chemistry Professor. Retrieved from http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2014/december/knighthood-for-nottingham-chemistry-pro...

“The Nexus Blog” is a sister publication of “The Nexus” newsletter. To sign up for the newsletter, please email gci@acs.org, or if you have an ACS ID, login to your email preferences and select “The Nexus” to subscribe.

To read other posts, go to Green Chemistry: The Nexus Blog home.