Elsevier announces the winner of the 2013 Tetrahedron Prize

Elsevier and the Executive Board of Editors of the Tetrahedron journal series are pleased to announce that the 2013 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry & BioMedicinal Chemistry has been awarded to Professor Shankar Balasubramanian.

The annual Tetrahedron Prize honors the most creative and influential organic or medicinal chemist. The Executive Board of Editors of the Tetrahedron journal series selected Professor Balasubramanian for his many highly significant and seminal contributions to nucleic acid chemistry and biology.

Professor Stephen Neidle, Chairman of the Editorial Board of Tetrahedron journals said, "Professor Balasubramanian is a world-leading researcher in the study of quadruplex nucleic acids, demonstrating, for example, the existence of these structures in human cells: a landmark study which can pave the way to therapeutic targeting of quadruplexes. Furthermore, he has creatively applied knowledge of nucleic acid chemistry to the invention of next-generation DNA sequencing which is revolutionizing genetics and its application to medicine."

"I am deeply honoured to be the recipient of this important prize and to join such a distinguished collection of chemists who have previously received this award," said Professor Balasubramanian. "I would like to acknowledge the contributions of many talented and visionary co-workers and collaborators with whom it continues to be a great pleasure exploring nature through science. I thank Tetrahedron journals and the election committee for recognising the importance of the field of nucleic acids. I foresee that chemistry will contribute many more discoveries and inventions to further our understanding of DNA and RNA in the next decade and beyond."

Diddel Francissen, Executive Publisher of Tetrahedron journal series at Elsevier, said, "I am delighted with the choice of Professor Balasubramanian as the winner of the 2013 Tetrahedron Prize. I thank both the nominators and the leading scientists in the voting committee, who helped the Editors in making such an exceptional choice from a field of very strong nominations."

The Tetrahedron Prize consists of a gold medal and a monetary award of $10,000 and will be presented to Professor Shankar Balasubramanian at the Fall 2014 ACS National Meeting in San Francisco, USA (10-14 August 2014).

Provided by Elsevier