Royal Society of Chemistry award for top local scientist

Professor Andy Smith, who was born in Hastings but works at the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester, is the Royal Society of Chemistry Toxicology Award winner for 2017.

Andy works to understand how some environmental chemicals are toxic and the risks they pose to people.

On receiving the award, he said: “I am delighted to be selected to receive the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Toxicology Award.

“I believe this award reflects the importance of mechanistic chemistry in understanding the many aspects of toxicology in rapidly changing fields of hazard identification and risk assessment and in the safety of medicines and food.”

The Toxicology Award is handed out for the contributions of chemical science to occupational and environmental toxicology.

Professor Smith receives £2,000, a medal and a certificate.

Dr Robert Parker, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: “It is an honour to celebrate the innovation and expertise of our community through our prizes and awards. We know chemistry can be a powerful force for good, and quality research and communication of that research are more important than ever before.”

The award winners are evaluated for the originality and impact of their research, as well as the quality of the results.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage at www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/ 2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/hastingsobserver

3) Follow us on Twitter @HastingsObs

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

The Hastings Observer - always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.