Chemistry International
Vol. 21, No. 5
September 1999
Awards
Ronald
Breslow and Murray Moo-Young Win American Chemical Society Awards
Researchers
Benefit from Chemical Structure Association Trust Awards and Bursaries
CNC/IUPAC
Travel Awards Announced
ThiemeIUPAC
Prize in Synthetic Organic Chemistry
Ronald
Breslow and Murray Moo-Young Win American Chemical Society Awards
Professors Ronald Breslow and Murray Moo-Young, both
active IUPAC Members, have won prestigious awards from the American
Chemical Society this year.
Prof. Breslow, Chemistry and University Professor at
Columbia University in New York City and Titular Member of IUPAC's Organic
Chemistry Division (III) Committee as well as Member of the Subcommittee
on Bioorganic Chemistry, was honored with the Priestley Medal, the highest
ACS award, during the society's national meeting last spring in Anaheim,
CA, USA. Previously the winner of awards too numerous to cite here,
Breslow is noted for his pioneering research in nonbenzenoid aromatic
chemistry; enzyme-catalyzed reactions; biomimetic approaches to synthesis
of enzymes and complex carbohydrates; and synthesis of simple anticancer
compounds consisting of two solvent-like molecules linked together with
a carbon chain. Prof. Breslow says he continues to "like to make
new molecules that we think will have interesting properties".
Prof. Moo-Young, Professor of Chemical Engineering
at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and a National Representative
for IUPAC's Commission on Biotechnology, was presented with the Marvin
J. Johnson Award in Microbial and Biochemical Technology at the spring
ACS national meeting. Prof. Moo-Young has been at the forefront of establishing
quantitative correlations for mass transfer, mixing, and kinetics in
bioreactor systems. He is also noted for the development of process
biotechnologies that employ fragile cell cultures in the production
of drugs, biopolymers, and foodstuffs. His recent research has focused
on elucidating bioremediation enhancement. In that work, he has used
physicochemical pretreatment strategies to control and abate environmental
pollution.
Researchers
Benefit from Chemical Structure Association Trust Awards and Bursaries
We thank Dr. Wendy A. Warr (Wendy A. Warr & Associates,
6 Berwick Court, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 7HZ, England, UK; Tel./Fax:
+44 1477 533837; E-mail: [email protected];
Web site: http://www.warr.com), Chairman
of the IUPAC Committee on Printed and Electronic Publications (CPEP),
for arranging for the preparation of the following article by Dr. William
G. Town ([email protected]),
Chairman of the Chemical Structure Association Trust.
Origin of the Chemical Structure Association (CSA) Trust
The Chemical Structure Association
(CSA) Trust was founded in response to two related problems: universities
having trouble funding research, and industry having difficulty recruiting
suitably trained personnel. It is a registered charity that aims to
promote research and development in the field of storage, processing,
and retrieval of information about chemical structures, reactions, and
compounds. It was established in 1998 with money from the Chemical Structure
Association (although the Trust is a legally separate entity).
Research in the field of chemical structure handling
has shown considerable success in recent years, and results have been
rapidly reflected in practice. Both similarity and 3D structure searching
have been well established for some time, even though much of the research
behind them was only carried out in the 1980s. There is still a pressing
need for such research in the chemical information arena. Combinatorial
chemistry and molecular diversity are just two examples of exciting,
ground-breaking fields. The CSA Trust exists to support such development,
particularly research, attendance at conferences, etc., which might
otherwise have been impossible because of lack of funds.
Annual Awards, Awardees, and Areas of Research
Since its inception, the Trust has supported a very
broad range of research by scientists from tremendously diverse backgrounds
and geographical locations. The annual awards and bursaries have by
no means been limited to the United States and Western Europe; a number
of Russian projects have been assisted, for instance. Award winners
have ranged from an American undergraduate who has been engaged in a
year's research at Moscow State University, to a Chinese predoctoral
student working at the University of North Carolina, to a researcher
from the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, India. Specific areas
of research have included quantitative structure-activity relationships
(QSAR) and combinatorial chemistry, chemical literature data extraction,
computer-assisted synthesis, genetic algorithms, neural networks, reaction
databases, and quantum chemistry.
A CSA Trust Annual Award is USD 3 200/GBP 2 000, which
the winner can put toward attending a relevant conference, toward travel
(to collaborate with another research group, for instance), or toward
hardware or software to assist with a research project. The award is
not usually given for hardware and software alone, however. In return,
it is simply asked that the winners should supply a report within a
year of the award, giving some detail of how the money was spent, in
what way the conference was useful, etc.
Application Procedures
Any prospective applicants should not hesitate to get
in contact with the Trust; they could find themselves pleasantly surprised
at how the Trustees can be of assistance. An application should include
the following:
statement of academic qualifications,
details of relevant work,
description of research recently completed by
the applicant,
purpose for which the award is required, and
letters from two academic referees supporting
the application.
The clarity and relevance of the statement of the purpose
for which the award is to be used is especially important, as this is
crucial in deciding between applicants.
Travel Bursaries
Besides the CSA Trust Annual Award, there are other
bursaries available, too, for attendance at certain designated conferences
and, indeed, at any conference relevant to the aims of the Trust. These
bursaries are mainly offered to those who wish to submit a paper or
poster and who cannot meet their own conference expenses. Applications
for a bursary should contain the following:
brief biography,
details of the applicant's current research,
details of the conference and its relevance
to that research,
title of any paper or poster the applicant may
wish to present, and
letter of recommendation from a supervisor or
colleague.
Financial Supporters of the Trust
A number of organizations with an interest in chemical
information have supported the Trust financially, including the American
Chemical Society, the BASIC Group, Chemical Abstracts Service, the Chemical
Notation Association, Derwent, FIZ CHEMIE BERLIN, GlaxoWellcome, Hoffman-La
Roche, Pfizer, Unilever, Wendy Warr & Associates, and Zeneca. The
Trust is also always eager to supplement this group and to bring on
board new organizations to support the cause financially or to help
with the running of the Trust. Support for the Trust is not simply a
question of donating money, though, of course, that is always encouraged
and welcomed; introducing others to the Trust, sponsoring an event,
or even mailing publicity material can all help greatly to raise awareness
and assist those who could make good use of an award. The Trust is run
by an international board of Trustees from industry and academia, including
well-known names from such organizations as Chapman & Hall, ChemWeb,
Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), FIZ CHEMIE BERLIN,
GlaxoWellcome, Hampden Data Services, Questel.Orbit, Rohm and Haas,
and UMI.
Comments from Trust Award and Bursary Winners
Some comments from award and bursary winners' reports:
"This award has been a great help for assisting
my research and made it possible for me, a predoctoral student, to attend
these scientific conferences."Weifan Zheng, University of
North Carolina, USA.
"[The conference] offered a good coverage of
the trends in the field, and there were plenty of opportunities for
stimulating discussions on existing problems and available solutions
It
was a great opportunity for me to present some of our recent work in
computational chemistry and to exchange ideas and opinions with other
scientists."Horst Bögel, University of Halle, Merseburg,
Germany.
"The session on Molecular Modeling and Managing
Three-Dimensional Structures was probably my personal favorite, with
some excellent speakers and informative talks
I found the conference
interesting, enjoyable, and definitely thought-provoking, with a wide
range of computational topics on the leading edge of chemical reseach
.If
given the opportunity, I would definitely attend the Fifth Conference
[on Chemical Structures] and would like to thank the CSA Trust for enabling
me to attend this year."Jon Baber, University of Leeds, UK.
"I had never previously presented a poster, so
this was an excellent opportunity to learn how to create a readable
poster, and how to lure people over to look at it
[The conference]
also gave me a chance to see presentations of exciting work in the broad
area of chemical structures, which may influence my choice of specialist
discipline for graduate school and beyond."Kevin Jernigan,
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Contacting the Trust
All those with any interest in applying for an award
or bursary or in supporting the CSA Trust are welcome to contact the
Secretary (Mrs. J. E. Ash, The Roundel, Frittenden, Cranbrook, Kent
TN17 2EP, England, UK; E-mail: [email protected];
Tel./Fax: +44 1580 852270) or visit the CSA Trust web site (http://www.chemistry.de/CSA-TRUST/).
CNC/IUPAC
Travel Awards Announced
This article is paraphrased from the May 1999 issue
of Canadian Chemical News (Volume 51, No. 5, pp. 44-45).
The Canadian National Committee for IUPAC (CNC/IUPAC)
established a program of Travel Awards in 1982. These awards are financed
by the Gendron Fund (administered by the Canadian Society for Chemistry,
CSC), supplemented by funds donated by CNC/IUPAC's Company Associates.
The purpose of the awards is to help young Canadian chemists and chemical
engineers (within 10 years of gaining their Ph.Ds) present a paper at
an IUPAC-sponsored conference outside continental North America. Typically,
six or seven awards of CD 1 000-1 500 are made each year.
Applications are now invited for the 2000 Travel Awards
competition. They should include a curriculum vitae, the name of the
conference and its importance to the applicant, plus any other pertinent
information or supporting documents. Five copies of the application
should be sent to the chair of the travel awards committee: Verdene
H. Smith, Jr., Department of Chemistry, Queen's University, Kingston,
ON, K7L 3N6, Canada. The deadline for receipt of applications is 15
October 1999.
A list of eligible conferences may be found on the
IUPAC web site (http://www.iupac.org/symposia/2000.html)
or at the back of this issue. Awards are made to attend the conference
identified in the application, and no changes are allowed.
Winners of the 1999 CNC/IUPAC Travel Awards are John
Brennan, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON (Analytical Science into
the Next Millennium, SAC99, 25_30 July 1999, Dublin, Ireland); R. Stephen
Brown, Queen's University, Kingston, ON; François Caron, Atomic
Energy of Canada Ltd., Chalk River, ON (SAC99); Cathleen Crudden, University
of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB; Andrew MacMillan, University of Toronto,
Toronto, ON; Michael Wolf, University of British Columbia, Vancouver,
BC (1st IUPAC Workshop on Advanced Materials, WAM1: Nanostructured
Systems, 14-18 July 1999, Hong Kong, China); and Mark Workentin, University
of Western Ontario, London, ON.