Scripps Research chemist Donna Blackmond elected to the Royal Society of the U.K. Blackmond's wide-ranging work has shaped origin of life theories, our understanding of complex organic reaction mechanisms, drug development and much more.
May 16, 2024
LA JOLLA, CA Donna Blackmond, PhD, a renowned Scripps Research professor and the John C. Martin Endowed Chair in Chemistry, has been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, one of the world's oldest scientific academies.
The Royal Society dates to the 17th century when King Charles II granted it a royal charter. The title of a Royal Society Fellow, or FRS, is a rare honor limited to top leaders in their fields, including Sir Isaac Newton. Key missions of the society include promoting scientific research in the U.K. by fostering international cooperation, informing public policy, and improving communication between scientists and the public.
It's a privilege to be honored by such a prestigious and longstanding organization, says Blackmond. The society embodies the spirit of science, and I am humbled to be part of this learned society.
Blackmond's research has spanned many disciplines, including chemical engineering, organic chemistry and physical organic chemistry. At Scripps Research, Blackmond has accomplished groundbreaking work on the molecular geometry that exists in the building blocks of the natural world a property known as chirality which has implications ranging from designing effective therapeutics to the very origins of life on Earth. Most recently, she published two studies in Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggesting how this molecular handedness emerged in early biology.
Prior to joining Scripps Research in 2010, Blackmond served in numerous roles, including as professor and chair in catalysis at Imperial College London, and as associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, where she also earned both her bachelor's degree and master's degree in chemical engineering in the early 1980s. She earned her doctorate in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Blackmond has also carried out research in a pharmaceutical setting, serving as the associate director of technical operations at Merck, where she spearheaded a group called the Reaction Engineering Laboratory, accelerating drug development and reducing production costs through fundamental studies of organic reaction mechanisms. While there, she developed a technique called Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis (RPKA), which significantly streamlines mechanistic studies and process development of chemical reactions. This method is now an academic and industry-wide standard for reactions of pharmaceutical interest, and most of her current research efforts are devoted to kinetic and mechanistic studies of complex organic catalytic reactions.
Blackmond has held academic positions in the U.S., Germany and the U.K. Throughout her career, she has received numerous honors and awards, including the Max-Planck Gesellschaft Award for Outstanding Women Scientists, the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, the Arthur C. Cope Scholar and the James Flack Norris Awards, both from the American Chemical Society, an Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Forschungspreis, and the IUPAC Award for Distinguished Women in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016, the German National Academy of Sciences in 2020, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
Chemistry Blackmond, Donna
North America Stories
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Liberty University on why broadcast technology isn't just a technical invest...
08/05/2026
COW Jobs: UGC, On-Camera Video Content
Brie Clayton May 7, 2026
0 Comments
UGC, On-Camera Video Content
April 17, 2026Documentary Editor - US,......
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
07/05/2026
At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects
Graham Quince May 6, 2026
0 Comments
The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...
07/05/2026
AI will help build the energy it needs.
That's the case U.S. Energy Secreta...
07/05/2026
Back to All News
Red Chillies Entertainment and Netflix Present the Trailer of ...
07/05/2026
Less typing, more tanking.
Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...
06/05/2026
Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...
06/05/2026
A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...
06/05/2026
Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...
Scripps Research chemist Donna Blackmond elected to the Royal Society of the U.K. Blackmond's wide-ranging work has shaped origin of life theories, our understanding of complex organic reaction mechanisms, drug development and much more. 
