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Molecular Graphics and Modelling Society (MGMS) and Royal Society of Chemistry Molecular Modelling Group (RSC MMG) Encourage Young Researchers!
In order to encourage young scientists at the beginning of their careers, the MGMS organises an annual "Young Modellers' Forum" in which postgraduate students present their work on any aspect of computational chemistry or computational biology in front of a learned audience of academic and industrial researchers.
This year the meeting took place on November 30th 2001 and was run in conjunction with the Royal Society of Chemistry's Molecular Modelling Group (RSC MMG) and was sponsored by 15 pharmaceutical and software companies (http://www.mgms.org/young2001.htm).
The first prize was awarded to Samantha Hughes of the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College, who outlined her research on the asymmetry of a key bacterial enzyme demonstrating that the molecular modelling findings were in good agreement with experimental measurements. The poster prize for 2001 was awarded to Daniele Bemporad of the University of Southampton for his work on the simulation of drugs passing through membranes.
Presenting the awards, Dr. David Manallack (the organiser of the meeting and a researcher at Celltech) praised the standard of the presentations: "This year has been outstanding. I've had researchers of 25 years standing telling me they couldn't give presentations as good as the ones we saw today."
The Molecular Graphics and Modelling Society is a charitable organisation that promotes and advances public education in the science of molecular graphics and related subjects. Dr. Catherine Burt (of Pfizer Global Research and Development and Chairperson of the Society) expressed the importance of mentoring young scientists. "I am committed to making sure that the society fulfils the essential role of nurturing up-and-coming talent by running poster competitions for students at our meetings and organising a Young Modeller's forum, which helps industry to recruit new people."
For further information, please visit the society's web site: http://www.mgms.org
