Announcement laureates Stratingh Award 2026

The Stratingh Award honors outstanding early-career researchers in molecular chemistry who have completed their PhD within the past four years. Established by the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry at the University of Groningen, this biennial award recognizes postdoctoral scientists with exceptional potential to become future leaders in the field. Nominations are evaluated based on scientific excellence, creativity, and future promise. The award celebrates innovation and leadership potential in molecular chemistry.

The evaluation committee is delighted to announce that Patricia Izquierdo García and Kira Podolsky have been named the first two recipients of the Stratingh Award.

Patricia Izquierdo García is a MSCA postdoctoral researcher currently working in the group of Prof. Ben L. Feringa at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, where she focuses on the development of nanographene-based molecular motors. She previously served as a postdoctoral researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, under Prof. Nazario Martín, specializing in chiral bilayer molecular nanographenes. Patricia earned her PhD in Chemistry (Cum Laude with International Mention) from the Complutense University of Madrid in 2024, with a thesis on chiral molecular nanographenes supervised by Prof. Nazario Martín and Dr. Jesús Manuel Fernández-García. Her research experience also includes internships at Harvard University and Durham University, where she worked on covalent organic frameworks and antibacterial peptoids, respectively. She has authored seven peer-reviewed publications in prestigious journals such as Journal of the American Chemical Society and Angewandte Chemie. Patricia has contributed to book chapters on molecular nanographenes and received numerous awards, including the Best Doctoral Thesis 2024 from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry and a MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Kira Podolsky is a Schmidt Science Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, where she currently works with Prof. Ronald T. Raines on replacing essential enzymes with minimal peptide catalysts in yeast. She earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, San Diego (2022), under Prof. Neal K. Devaraj, focusing on the synthesis and characterization of biomimetic compartments. Her research background includes structural biology at the NIH, and antibody-drug conjugate analysis at Seattle Genetics (now Pfizer). Kira has authored 12 publications, including notable works in Nature Reviews Chemistry, PNAS, and JACS, and holds a patent for transmembrane protein semisynthesis on lipid vesicles. She is a recipient of prestigious awards, such as the Schmidt Science Fellowship and multiple travel and research grants, and has delivered invited talks at institutions like the University of Cambridge and Imperial College. Her research bridges chemistry and biology, exploring the origins of life and the development of synthetic biological systems.

Both winners will deliver a plenary lecture at the GroMoChem International Symposium (May 10^th–13^th, 2026) in Groningen.