A St Andrews boffin has likened the award of a prestigious international award to lifting a football trophy.
Professor David O’Hagan of the School of Chemistry has been awarded the 2018 Prix Henri Moissan for his work in fluorine chemistry.
The prize, which is awarded every three years by the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie, was created by the French chemistry community to commemorate Moissan’s isolation of elemental fluorine in 1886, an achievement for which he later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The prize winner is selected by poll of around 100 international specialists in the field.
Mr O’Hagan said: “I am absolutely delighted to have been selected as the Henri Moissan awardee.
“It is the fluorine chemists’ Nobel Prize.”
He paid tribute to the work of his students and postdocs and “fantastic collaborators over many years”.
“Their dedication and enthusiasm has been inspiring and their achievements have gone well beyond what I could have imagined.
“I feel like a football manager lifting a trophy on behalf of a wonderfully talented team.”
Mr O’Hagan will be honoured in Paris this November, receiving a diploma, medal and 15,000 Euro.
