Diamond scientists win RSC prize for chemistry-aware AI software
Jun 25, 2025
Four scientists from Diamond have been awarded the Materials Chemistry Horizon Prize for their work on accelerating data-driven chemical materials discovery.
The winning AI for Materials team includes Diamond’s Phil Chater, Francesco Carla, Chris Nicklin, and Jonathan Rawle.
The prize honours their exceptional work in developing chemistry-aware artificial intelligence software. The work includes applying this advanced technology to data-driven materials discovery and providing open-source materials databases and language models for the global scientific community.
The team from Diamond were very pleased to contribute to this project that involved a large multinational team. It has been a great collaborative effort to develop the use of artificial intelligence in materials discovery.
Chris Nicklin, Diamond's Deputy Director of Physical Sciences
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Diamond’s four winners were part of a team that includes AI-experts from Cambridge and US supercomputing specialists at Argonne National Laboratory, supported by researchers from around the globe. This included scientists from ISIS Neutron and Muon Source and the Research Complex at Harwell.
The team developed ChemDataExtractor, the first chemistry-aware text mining tool. The materials-domain-specific language software provides an interactive way for scientists to ask questions, similar to the ChatGPT model.
They were able to demonstrate data-driven materials discovery in less than one year, vastly reducing the average 20 year timeframe it usually takes industry to discover new material for a given application.
The resulting high-quality experimental databases and chemistry-specific language models will now help guide scientific decisions and speed up research. To mark their achievements, the team will receive a trophy, and each team member will be presented with a special individual token. Additionally, their remarkable work will be showcased in a special video.
About the Royal Society of Chemistry Prizes
The Royal Society of Chemistry’s prizes have recognised excellence in the chemical sciences for more than 150 years. This year’s winners join a prestigious list of past winners in the RSC’s prize portfolio, 60 of whom have gone on to win Nobel Prizes for their work.
The Horizon Prizes highlight exciting, contemporary chemical science at the cutting edge of research and innovation. These prizes are for groups, teams and collaborations of any form or size who are opening up new directions and possibilities in their field, through ground-breaking scientific developments.
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
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