Scientists at Cambridge have helped resolve a long-standing question about how water behaves when confined to spaces just a few molecules wide, in work that could inform the design of batteries, fuel cells and nanofluidic devices.

Professor Jonathan Nitschke has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for the proposed project “Large, Dynamic Capsules for Biomolecular Cargoes”.

n-AQUA (nanoscale water), a major collaborative effort involving many of our researchers, has been awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faraday Horizon Prize. The prize recognises the team’s groundbreaking discoveries showing how water’s structure and behaviour change when it is confined to the nanoscale or interacts with low dimensional interfaces.

The Department warmly congratulates Professor Jonathan Nitschke, Professor Angelos Michaelides and Professor Hugo Bronstein on receiving their respective RSC prizes.

Researchers from the Zhang Group at the University of Cambridge have uncovered why a class of molecules crucial to emerging green energy technologies rapidly lose performance in water – and developed a simple chemical strategy that could dramatically improve the performance of experimental “living solar panels.”

Three distinguished alumni of the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society, one of the highest honours in science.

Professor Sir David Klenerman and Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian have been recognised with the William Bate Hardy Prize 2026 for their outstanding contributions to chemical science and innovation.

Cambridge spinout Nyobolt has raised $60 million in Series C funding at a valuation of over $1 billion, marking a major milestone in the translation of battery research from the University of Cambridge into real-world applications.