Research in Professor Willis' group combines total synthesis, isotopic labelling and mechanistic studies to reveal how complex molecules are assembled, both in the flask and in Nature. The Charles Rees Award for 2026 is given for her influential body of work on oxygen-containing heterocyclic natural product synthesis and the mechanistic understanding it has generated.
Her pioneering Prins cyclisation studies established the origins of stereocontrol and side-chain exchange in tetrahydropyran formation, enabling the construction of polycyclic scaffolds and complex natural products. In turn, the stereocontrolled synthesis of putative biosynthetic intermediates by the Willis Group has underpinned the discovery and characterisation of enzymes that construct such rings in Nature.
Professor Willis will deliver a plenary lecture at the 27th Lakeland Symposium in 2027 and the award also supports two PhD students from her group to attend the conference and present their work.
Established in 2008 and first awarded in 2010, the Charles Rees Award is a biennial accolade covering the synthesis, properties, and applications of all types of heterocyclic compounds. It is named after Charles Rees FRS (1927-2006), a former Professor of organic chemistry at Imperial College London who acted as president of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 1992 to 1994.