Winners of the 2014 Reaxys PhD Prize Announced

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the winners of the 2014 Reaxys PhD Prize. Awarding innovative and original research in organic, organometallic and inorganic chemistry, the Reaxys PhD Prize celebrates top research conducted by leading young chemists across the globe.

Selected from among 45 finalists representing some of today's brightest young chemists, the 2014 Reaxys PhD Prize Winners, and their representative, peer-reviewed articles are:

• Zoey Herm from the Long group, University of California, Berkeley, USA – "Separation of Hexane Isomers in a Metal-Organic Framework with Triangular Channels", Science, 2013
• Dawen Niu from the Hoye group, University of Minnesota , USA – "The aromatic ene reaction", Nature Chemistry, 2014
• Changxia Yuan from the Siegel group, University of Texas at Austin, USA – "Metal-free oxidation of aromatic carbon-hydrogen bonds through a reverse-rebound mechanism", Nature, 2013

This year, more than 500 submissions were received from nearly 400 universities across the globe. Submissions consisted of a representative, peer-reviewed, published research paper accompanied by a CV and PhD supervisor recommendation letter. Entries were reviewed by over 70 international chemists from academia and industry. The reviewers judged the entries for originality, innovation, importance to the field, applicability, rigor of approach and publication quality.

The 2014 Chairs of the Reaxys PhD Prize's review board are: Professors Tony Barrett (Imperial College London, UK), Eiichi Nakamura (University of Tokyo, Japan), Gerard Parkin (Columbia University, New York, USA), Martin Jansen (Max-Planck Institute, Stuttgart, Germany), Barry Trost (Stanford University, USA) and Henry Wong (The Chinese University Hong Kong, Hong Kong).

Running for the 5th year, the Reaxys PhD Prize has become the world's most important prize for Chemistry PhD students. To date, over 2,200 applications have been received from well over 400 universities across the globe.

"The Reaxys PhD Prize received submissions from over 60 countries – it has become the premier international prize showcasing inspiring chemistry," said Dr. David Evans, Scientific Affairs Director at Reed Elsevier Properties SA. "Each year we invite the prize winners and finalists to join the Reaxys Prize Club, promoting networking and collaboration. They will join the 180 similarly minded individuals, finalists and winners from previous years, representing a wide variety of skills and research expertizes – this is an amazing opportunity to connect with peers from both industry and academia, many of whom will undoubtedly play a key role in the future of chemistry."

The winners and all finalists of this year's prize have been invited to attend the Reaxys Inspiring Chemistry Conference which will be held in Grindelwald, Switzerland, September 21 – 24, 2014, where they will be given the opportunity to present their research. Details about the conference are available online at: http://inspiringchemistry.reaxys.com/conference.

For more information about the Reaxys PhD Prize, including the full list of the 45 finalists go to: http://inspiringchemistry.reaxys.com/phdprize

Provided by Elsevier