Caroline Paul, Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, has been awarded the KNCV Gouden Medaille (Gold Medal) by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Chemische Vereniging (KNCV, Royal Dutch Chemical Society). The award was presented during the NWO CHAINS 2024 conference in Veldhoven, The Netherlands, on December 3, 2024.

The KNCV Gold Medal is the most important Dutch chemistry prize and honors researchers up to forty years of age who have distinguished themselves in the field of chemical research in its broadest sense. Caroline Paul is recognized for her “visionary and highly original research into expanding the scope of biocatalysis, which is both fundamentally groundbreaking and relevant to tangible, sustainable industrial applications”.

In addition to her scientific achievements, the jury praised Caroline Paul’s work as an inspiring teacher, committed mentor, and a highly skilled science communicator. In her outreach efforts, she often uses social media channels and popular science platforms to reach new audiences. She also founded the NextGenBiocat initiative to promote young scientists and is active in various national and international scientific organizations.

 

Caroline Paul received her Honours BSc and MSc degrees in Biological Chemistry from the University of Toronto, Canada, and her Ph.D. from the University of Oviedo, Spain, in 2013. After completing postdoctoral work with an EU Marie Curie fellowship at TU Delft and a NWO VENI grant at Wageningen University, she was appointed Assistant Professor in Biocatalysis at TU Delft in 2018 and promoted to Associate Professor in 2023.

Among other honors and grants, Caroline Paul was named a Chemistry Europe Fellow in 2024. Additionally, she received the NWO Perspectief Grant in 2023, the HORIZON-CL6 Grant in 2023, the NWO ENW XL Grant in 2022, the NWO ENW XS Grant in 2020, and the ERC Starting Grant in 2020.

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Selected Publications

• Christian M. Heckmann, Moritz Bürgler, Caroline E. Paul, Peroxygenase-Catalyzed Allylic Oxidation Unlocks Telescoped Synthesis of (1S,3R)-3-Hydroxycyclohexanecarbonitrile, ACS Catal. 2024, 14, 5, 2985–2991. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.4c00177
• Christian M. Heckmann, Caroline E. Paul, Enantio-Complementary Synthesis of 2-Substituted Pyrrolidines and Piperidines via Transaminase-Triggered Cyclizations, JACS Au 2023, 3, 6, 1642–1649. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.3c00103
• Rocio Villa, Claudia Ferrer-Carbonell, Caroline E. Paul, Biocatalytic reduction of alkenes in micro-aqueous organic solvent catalysed by an immobilised ene reductase, Catalysis Science & Technology 2023. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CY00541K
• Hitesh Medipally, Alice Guarneri, Lars Pospisil, Maurice C. R. Franssen, Willem J. H. van Berkel, Caroline E. Paul, Marc M. Nowaczyk, Light-Driven NADPH Cofactor Recycling by Photosystem I for Biocatalytic Reactions, ChemCatChem 2023. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.202300821
• Holly A. Reeve, Jake Nicholson, Farieha Altaf, Thomas H. Lonsdale, Janina Preissler, Lars Lauterbach, Oliver Lenz, Silke Leimkühler, Frank Hollmann, Caroline E. Paul, Kylie A. Vincent, A hydrogen-driven biocatalytic approach to recycling synthetic analogues of NAD(P)H, Chemical Communications 2022. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CC02411J
• Jinhyun Kim, Sahng Ha Lee, Florian Tieves, Da Som Choi, Frank Hollmann, Caroline E. Paul, Chan Beum Park, Biocatalytic C=C Bond Reduction through Carbon Nanodot-Sensitized Regeneration of NADH Analogues, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201804409