Winner: 2025 Corday-Morgan Mid-Career Prize for 九州影院
Professor Stephen Goldup
University of Birmingham
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2025 Corday-Morgan Mid-Career Prize for 九州影院: awarded for delineating stereochemical theory of the mechanical bond, the discovery of new mechanical stereogenic units, and developing flexible methodological concepts for the stereoselective synthesis of chiral rotaxanes and catenanes.
Just as in the macroscopic world, there are different ways to permanently join molecules together to make objects with beneficial functions. By far the most common approach is to form a new chemical bond between them, which is akin to using glue to join macroscopic objects 鈥� the join is permanent and due to an attractive interaction (the bond or the glue respectively).
In the macroscopic world, a common alternative to glue is to use a mechanical link, such as a bolt and nut through two sheets of wood, the links in a chain or the crossing of threads in a woven material, which work because solid objects cannot pass through one another. The same is possible for molecules because atoms and bonds cannot pass through one another. Thus, two ring-shaped molecules can be joined just like links in a macroscopic chain.
Such mechanically bonded molecules were first discussed in the early 1910s and have become increasingly easy to make since breakthroughs in the 1980s. They have even been shown to have exciting properties with potential benefits in medicine and plastics. However, these insights have yet to have any impact outside of the research laboratory. The purpose of research in the Goldup Group is to finish the job of making mechanically interlocked molecules useful for society as drugs, materials, catalysts and beyond.
Biography
Steve grew up in Gloucester, where he attended Sir Thomas Rich鈥檚 School. He studied for an MChem at the University of Oxford, where he began his research career with a Part II project in the group of Sir Professor Jack Baldwin. He then completed a PhD in natural product synthesis under the supervision of Professor Anthony Barrett, before shifting focus to apply his synthetic skills to mechanically interlocked non-natural products with Professor David Leigh at the University of Edinburgh.
In Edinburgh, Steve began his formal teaching career as a fixed-term lecturer in organic chemistry. In 2008, Steve moved to Queen Mary University of London with a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, and in 2009 he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. In 2014, Steve and his group moved to the University of Southampton, where he took up the position of associate professor. While in Southampton, Steve was promoted to Professor of 九州影院 in 2017 and in 2019 was awarded a Wolfson Fellowship.
In 2023, Steve and his team moved to the University of Birmingham where he is Chair of 九州影院 and the molecular synthesis section lead. Research in the Goldup Group focuses on developing efficient methods to synthesise novel mechanically interlocked molecules, including examples displaying mechanical stereochemistry, to allow the practical benefits of the mechanical bond to be realised. The ultimate goal of research in the Goldup Group is that rotaxanes and catenanes become truly useful in medicine, catalysis, materials and beyond.
Sometimes the thing you aren't expecting is more interesting than the thing you set out to work on 鈥� follow the science!
Professor Stephen Goldup
Q&A with Professor Stephen Goldup
How did you first become interested in chemistry?
I was very young (11 鈥� I think it was an Open University episode on TV?) when I was first exposed to the idea that we could understand how the world works by understanding what happens to the atoms in molecules when they interact and react. That idea has continued to fascinate me, and I still find understanding chemistry, whether that's through reaction mechanisms or analysing data, incredibly satisfying.
Tell us about somebody who has inspired or mentored you in your career
I have been very lucky throughout my career to have outstanding scientists as supervisors, mentors, colleagues and co-workers who have supported and challenged me. Under normal circumstances it would be hard to single one person out. However, in December 2024, Sir Fraser Stoddart died and it would be remiss of me not to single him out here for the impact he has had on my career.
Fraser was a constant in my scientific development, from being introduced to the mechanical bond through his chemistry when I was interviewing in Birmingham as an undergraduate, to (ultimately abortively) discussing a postdoc with him at the end of my PhD, and to being inspired by his science during my postdoctoral work with David Leigh.
Of course, this inspiration continued after I started my own group, but I also came to know Fraser the person, both by meeting him at conferences and from talking to Stoddart Group alumni. Over the years I found Fraser to be demanding in terms of standards he set both directly and indirectly 鈥� he expected your science to be of the highest quality and for you to be committed to your cause 鈥� and incredibly supportive both as a mentor and a cheerleader. Fraser was far more generous with his time and advice at key points in my career than I had reason to expect and I hope that I can take that forward in my own work, as well as continuing to be inspired by his scientific legacy.
What motivates you?
Collaborating with my group to understand and solve problems.
What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?
Find a problem that interests you that has enough "clear space" around it that there is still lots to find out. Ask interesting questions and keep your eye out for unexpected results. Sometimes the thing you aren't expecting is more interesting than the thing you set out to work on 鈥� follow the science!
What has been a highlight for you (either personally or in your career)?
When I sat down to write a perspective on mechanical stereochemistry in 2024 and realised how complete a story we have built over the last decade. Obviously I'm proud of the methods to make these molecules we have developed, but sitting down to write this review also allowed me to present a theoretically rigorous way of describing mechanical stereochemistry, which was hugely satisfying. Taking a complicated stereochemical concept that had been discussed in different ways over the last 60 years, and putting it on to a sound theoretical footing, was both satisfying and slightly intimidating 鈥� hopefully it will stand the test of time.
What has been a challenge for you (either personally or in your career)?
The sheer number of different tasks we perform as academics. I love almost everything about the science, communicating, teaching, supervising, mentoring etc. that form a large part of my role. The challenge is switching between so many roles, often in a course of a single day and always feeling like there is more to do. Work-life balance in academia is hard...
What does good research culture look like/mean to you?
Good research culture should enable people to achieve their ambitions and potential by giving them access to the knowledge, facilities and guidance they need in an environment where they feel supported, comfortable and safe. This starts at the top with the principal investigator, but all group members contribute to this directly and by how they act 鈥� everyone needs to be comfortable enough to try something difficult and fail because that's how research works. The principal investigator鈥檚 role, over and above setting the boundaries, is to step in when things might be going wrong, whether that's with an individual or with the group culture more generally.
Why do you think collaboration and teamwork are important in science?
Practically, collaboration is essential for us to do science we could never do ourselves, whether that's because we don't have the specialist expertise or access to the required techniques. This greatly increases the impact of our research. But perhaps more importantly, collaborations with people with different expertise and experiences also open up new ideas and perspectives, and this is true whether it鈥檚 a collaboration with an expert in a particular technique or with a new PhD student in the group.
Working in a team allows us to bring lots of different points of view to the problems we are working on. Everyone in my team contributes to this and I have learnt new things from people nominally both more senior and junior than me throughout my career.
How can scientists try to improve the environmental sustainability of research? Can you give us any examples from your own experience or context?
In the short-term, we can minimise the use of high-burden solvents, reagents and processes, as we all do. For instance in my group, we are looking at whether we can transfer some of our key processes from solvent into low/no-solvent mechanochemistry conditions. But ultimately, we need to do fewer experiments 鈥� too much of synthetic chemistry is carried out using expert-guided trial and error, which is often successful but also quite wasteful.
My view is that we need to get better at using computational modelling to guide our molecule designs and the optimisation of molecular properties. Although this has been on the wish list of most scientists for a long time, it really feels like this will become a reality in the near future, and I'm very keen to embed these techniques in my programme. This will both accelerate scientific progress and minimise the environmental cost of the research 鈥� a win-win!
What is your favourite element?
I should say copper because it has been a recurring theme throughout my independent career. But the honest answer is boron because reactions involving boron can make interesting bonds through cool mechanisms.