Elsevier Announces the Winner of the 2015 Tetrahedron Prize

AMSTERDAM, November 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Professor William L. Jorgensen of Yale University USA receives 2015 Tetrahedron Prize for his outstanding contributions to Organic Chemistry 

Elsevier and the Executive Board of Editors of the Tetrahedron journal series are pleased to announce that the 2015 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry has been awarded to Professor William L. Jorgensen, Yale University, USA. He receives the award for his outstanding contributions to organic chemistry.

Professor Stephen Martin, Chairman of the Editorial Board of Tetrahedron Journals, said on announcing this year's winner, "The Tetrahedron Prize for 2015 honors Professor William Jorgensen of Yale University for his outstanding contributions to the general field of computational chemistry and its applications to organic and medicinal chemistry, including chemical reactions, host-guest interactions, protein-ligand interactions, and drug discovery. His efforts in computational chemistry, especially in the modeling of organic and biomolecular systems in solution, have led to the development of methods that have been widely applied in bioorganic and medicinal chemistry. For example, he was the first to demonstrate the power of free-energy perturbation calculations for molecular systems and to prove their utility in the design of enzyme inhibitors. The success of his approach is apparent in his reports of potent inhibitors for multiple targets including HIV reverse transcriptase."

Professor Jorgensen's research covers both computational and experimental chemistry, whereby he combined quantum, statistical, and molecular mechanics to model chemistry in solution. He has been a leader in computational studies of organic and enzymatic reactions in solution, molecular recognition, protein-ligand binding, and molecular properties. His OPLS force fields and TIPnP water models are widely used. Together with his team of researchers, he is also actively engaged in de novo drug design and synthesis, particularly for anti-infective, anti-proliferative, and anti-inflammatory agents.

Professor Jorgensen said, "Receipt of the 2015 Tetrahedron Prize is a much appreciated, wonderful honor. I express my gratitude to the Executive Board of Editors of Tetrahedron publications for recognizing our work and for being a steadfast pillar in the organic chemistry community. I have known many of the past recipients and their achievements. To be included in the list is both thrilling and humbling. Of course, the award also recognizes the great talents and efforts of my many dedicated co-workers. It has been a magical voyage in which our fundamental research on modeling organic chemistry in solution evolved into powerful methodology for the discovery of potent enzyme inhibitors."

The Tetrahedron prize consists of a monetary award of $10,000 and will be presented during the 2016 Fall National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, in Philadelphia, USA (21-25 August 2015).

In a video interview Professor Jorgensen speaks about winning the award and provides some personal and scientific insights about some of his contributions to organic chemistry: https://youtu.be/dPoSeHt4S_A

For more information, go to:

http://www.elsevier.com/awards/global/tetrahedron-prize-for-creativity

About Professor William L. Jorgensen 

Professor William L. Jorgensen received his undergraduate education at Princeton University, whereupon he went to Harvard, earning his PhD under the direction of Professor E. J. Corey. After 15 years on the faculty at Purdue University, he moved to Yale, where he is a Sterling Professor and was recently the Director of the Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering.

Among honors, Bill has received an ACS Cope Scholar Award, the ACS Award for Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, the ACS Hildebrand Award, AAAS and ACS Fellowships, the ISQBP Award in Computational Biology, the Sato International Award from the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan, and memberships in the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and National Academy of Sciences. He was the Editor of the ACS Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling during 2004-2013 and has been the Editor of the ACS Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation since its founding in 2005. http://www.chem.yale.edu/faculty/jorgensen.html

About The Tetrahedron Prize 

The Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry was established in 1980 by the Executive Board of Editors and the Publisher of Tetrahedron Publications. It is intended to honour the memory of the founding co-Chairmen of these publications, Professor Sir Robert Robinson and Professor Robert Burns Woodward.

The Tetrahedron Prize is awarded on an annual basis for creativity in Organic Chemistry or Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry. The prize consists of a gold medal, a certificate, and a monetary award of US $10,000. It is awarded to an Organic or Medicinal Chemist who has made significant original contributions to the field, in its broadest sense. On some occasions, the Prize may be awarded jointly to two winners in which case two medals are presented. The winner is expected to write an appropriate article for Tetrahedron or Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry as part of a Symposium-in-Print compiled in their honour.

For more information: http://www.elsevier.com/awards/global/tetrahedron-prize-for-creativity

About Elsevier  

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 33,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com

Media contact 

Annis Moreira
Elsevier
+31-20-4852770
a.moreira@elsevier.com