Professor John Boland is Elected Fellow of the Prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science

Posted on: 24 February 2011

Director of the CRANN Nanoscience Institute at TCD and Professor of Chemistry John Boland has been awarded the distinction of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS) for his contributions to the field of surface chemistry, particularly the role of stress in controlling reactivity.

Election as a Fellow is an honour bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. This year 503 members have been awarded the honour because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. As a new Fellow, Professor Boland was presented with an official certificate and a gold rosette pin representing science at a recent special ceremony at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Commenting on the award, Professor Boland said: “It is a great honour to receive this recognition from the AAAS.   I will share this honour with the many students and research colleagues with whom I have collaborated over the years, both here at Trinity College and in the US.”

Professor Boland is an internationally recognised leader in the field of atom resolved surface chemistry and the properties of nanoscale materials.   Among his major contributions are the recognition of the role of stress in surface chemical reactivity; mechanisms of surface cycloadditions reactions; mechanical properties of nanoscale wire systems and transport through nanowire networks.

Prior to his current role at Trinity, he was the J.J. Hermans Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Applied Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals.