Ten Reaxys® Ph.D. Prize Finalists Selected to Present at Symposium in Hong Kong

NEW YORK, August 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Ph.D. Prize winners will be announced on September 8 

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced that ten Reaxys® Ph.D. Prize Finalists have been short-listed from the 45 talented chemists identified in June, and they are invited to present at the annual Symposium held this year at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, September 7-8.

This is the first year that oral presentations will form part of the judging process for the Reaxys Ph.D. Prize, a prestigious international award recognizing young chemist's work. Three winners will be chosen from these ten presentations and announced at the Symposium dinner on September 8.

The ten shortlisted finalists asked to give oral presentations are:

• Matthew Burns from the Aggarwal group, University of Bristol
• Cecilia Casadei from the Raven and Moody groups, Leicester, and the Blakeley group, Grenoble
• Patrick Fier from the Hartwig group, University of California Berkeley
• Andrew Jupp from the Goicoechea group, University of Oxford
• Kelli Ogawa from the Boydston group, University of Washington
• Sivaprakash Sengodan from the Kim group, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology
• John Tellis from the Molander group, University of Pennsylvania
• Shin-nosuke Uno from the Urano group, University of Tokyo
• Thorsten vom Stein from the Leitner group, RWTH Aachen University
• Xiao-Ye Wang from the Pei group, Peking University

All of the original 45 finalists from this year's prize are invited to attend the Symposium and present their work during a poster session. All candidates have been reviewed by an external review board comprised of members of the Reaxys Advisory Board; the review criteria include the originality, innovation, applicability, importance, and rigor of the reported research. The same board of chemistry leaders will select the three winners from the oral presentations given by the ten candidates they have shortlisted.

"This year's Symposium will be really exciting - introducing oral presentations in order to identify the winners is a change that I am very much in favor of," said Prof Dr Martin Jansen (Reaxys Ph.D. Prize judge). "One of the key skills these young scientists need to master is being able to present their research quickly and succinctly: getting across the key messages about what drove their work, how they approached and discovered their innovative solutions, and capturing the essence of their research. This will be a great test for them."

"The standard of research we see is very high: each year it is a very difficult task to select the finalists from so many excellent submissions," added Prof Henry N.C Wong (Reaxys Ph.D. Prize judge). "Selecting the winners is yet another level of difficulty, but one I am proud to be part of. The oral presentations will give us the opportunity to explore each candidate's drive and their passion for their research. We want to understand what makes their research innovative, what was that spark of original thought that made their work extra special, and why they followed a particular path. These are some of the brightest minds of this generation, and it will be very exciting to be there."

Since its introduction in 2010, the Reaxys Ph.D. Prize has received over 2500 submissions, from nearly 650 universities worldwide. The prize aims to not only nurture advances in chemistry by giving talented young chemists who have produced truly groundbreaking research the recognition that they deserve, but also present them with opportunities to extend their network, unlock new sources of inspiration and share knowledge.

More information about the Reaxys Ph.D. Prize, this year's ten short-listed finalists and the Symposium can be found here.

More information about the 2016 Reaxys Ph.D. Prize can be found here.

About Reaxys 

The Reaxys® solutions empower early discovery in drug development with access to over 500 million published experimental facts on compounds, reactions and bioactivity, including structure-activity relationship (SAR) data supporting hit identification, lead optimization and synthesis planning. For more information about Reaxys, visit http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/reaxys.

Reaxys is a trade mark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA, used under license. 

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 more than 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 

Christopher Capot
Director, Corporate Relations - US
Elsevier
+1-917-704-5174
c.capot@elsevier.com