MGMS Frank Blaney Award 2022: Call for Nominations
To support postdoctoral and young independent researchers, and to remember MGMS founder member Dr Frank Blaney, the MGMS has established the Frank Blaney Award (formerly the Silver Jubilee Award). This is awarded to outstanding young researchers in the field.
Nominations are now sought for the MGMS Frank Blaney Award 2022. All aspects of each candidate’s contributions to the field of molecular modelling and related areas (covering computational molecular science, including the development of methods, scientific hypotheses and insights, research presentations, patents, software and algorithms) may be considered by the Award Committee.
Purpose: The purpose of the MGMS Frank Blaney Award is to benefit the field of molecular modelling and its research community, in particular to support young researchers in the field and to increase recognition of MGMS. There are currently very few awards for young molecular modellers, compared to many awards for more ‘traditional’ physical chemistry.
Eligibility: Researchers in academia, non-profit research institutes, or in industry, with or without permanent positions, working in molecular modelling, simulation and visualization are eligible, provided the nominee has no more than 10 years of postdoctoral experience at the closing date. Exceptions due to career breaks may also be considered at the discretion of the Award Committee (any such circumstances should be made clear in the application).
Prize: A prize of £500 and a commemorative glass tankard will be awarded to the successful candidate at the discretion of MGMS, although if applications of high enough quality are not received, MGMS may decide not to bestow the Award in any given year.
Nominations: Candidates may be nominated by others or by themselves. To be considered, candidates should send the following submission material as a single combined PDF written in font no smaller than 11 pt Arial and with margins no smaller than 2 cm, to the MGMS Membership Secretary, Dr. Steve Maginn at smaginn@chemcomp.com, no later than 4th November, 2022:
• a 1 page CV which might include, but is not limited to, an outline of qualifications including dates, employment history, successful grants/fellowships/awards, evidence of independence, committee work, editorial work, and/or review work;
• a 1 page statement of the applicant’s research achievements and vision;
• a 1 page summary of significant publications, patents, public outreach, and contributions to the MGMS community listed as bullet points with brief summaries in each case;
• a 1 page supporting statement/nomination letter. If you are self-nominating, you must provide a letter of support from someone else.
4th MGMS Frank Blaney Award: Dr Albert J Kooistra
We are delighted to announce that the Fourth MGMS Frank Blaney Award has been awarded to Dr Albert J Kooistra, an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Albert was awarded his PhD by VU Amsterdam in 2015, and since 2018 has been based at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology in Copenhagen. His work concerns the structures and properties of G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), a key class of macromolecules which are embedded in membraned and thereby can govern access for smaller molecules to and from the cells. Alberts leads the team of developers of GPCRdb, a database (with accompanying search and display tools) of GPCRs which curates seqeunce alignments, structures, and known mutations, and which is therefore useful for anyone studying GPCR function or targeting GPCRs in drug design. Similarly, Albery has produced a similar resource for protein kinases, KLIFS.
The MGMS Committee warmly congratulates Albert on this award.
Previous MGMS Frank Blaney Awards:
3rd MGMS Frank Blaney Award: Prof. Fernanda Duarte-Gonzalez
We are delighted to announce that the Third MGMS Frank Blaney Award has been awarded to Prof. Fernanda Duarte-Gonzalez, an Associate Professor in Computational Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and a Tutorial Fellow in Chemistry at Hertford College, Oxford. Congratulations, Fernanda!
The MGMS Committee sends its congratulations to Fernanda!
2nd MGMS Frank Blaney Award
The Second MGMS Frank Blaney Award has been awarded to Dr Isidro Cortés-Ciriano, who is a Research Group Leader at EMBL-EBI, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK. His group’s work focuses on the exploration of cancer genomes using diverse sequencing techniques – from whole-genome sequencing to single-cell technologies – to better understand the underpinnings of cancer, with a particular focus on genome instability. In addition, the group integrates genomic and epigenomic data from preclinical models and clinical samples to discover genomic alterations predictive of response to anticancer therapies.
The MGMS Committee sends its congratulations to Isidro!
1st MGMS Frank Blaney Award
The first MGMS Frank Blaney Award has been awarded to to Dr Christopher Rowley, who is based in the Chemistry Department at Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, Canada. His group uses computer simulations to study biophysical chemistry and other complex chemical processes.
The MGMS Committee sends its congratulations to Christopher!
MGMS Silver Jubilee Award
The MGMS Silver Jubilee Award was renamed in 2018 to the MGMS Frank Blaney Award in memory of Dr Frank Blaney, a founder member of the MGMS.
10th MGMS Silver Jubilee Award was won by:
The MGMS is delighted to award the 10th MGMS Silver Jubilee Award to Dr David Glowacki. Dr Glowacki graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, but then moved to the UK, obtaining an MA from Manchester University in 2004 and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Leeds in 2008. He currently holds a Royal Society Research Fellowship at the University of Bristol and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University. Dr Glowacki’s work embraces both the sciences and the arts, exploring the interface between the two in terms of human perception; he has published in the fields of dynamics and non-equilibrium system simulations, but also scientific visualisation and digital aesthetics. The award recognises his ongoing, interdisciplinary work.
Past Recipients
| 10th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Dr David Glowacki, University of Bristol, UK. |
| 9th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Prof. Sereina Riniker , ETH Zürich, Switzerland. |
| 8th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Dr Peter Kolb, Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany. |
| 7th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Robert Paton, University of Oxford, UK. |
| 6th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Lynn Kamerlin, Uppsala University, UK. |
| 5th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Marcel Swart, Institut de Química Computacional, Universitat de Girona, Spain. |
| 4th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Andreas Bender, Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics, University of Cambridge, UK. |
| 3rd MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Cherif Matta, Mount Saint Vincent University & Dalhousie University, Canada. |
| 2nd MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Graeme Day, University of Southampton, UK. |
| 1st MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Nick Besley, University of Nottingham, UK. |
Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
Graphics play an essential role in the articles that are published in the Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, maybe even more than in other research journals. After a pause of some years we have decided to reinstate the yearly best graphic prize for JMGM. To honor our Editor, who unexpectedly passed away in 2017, the award is now called the Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize.
The Editors of the journal, Jamie Platts, Emilio Esposito and Michelle Sahai have gone through the articles of 2021 and unanimously selected Figure 7 published in: OctSurf: Efficient hierarchical voxel-based molecular surface representation for protein-ligand affinity prediction (JMGM, Vol. 105, 2021, 107865) as the winning image for its deep scientific content. The Editors have selected this image because of the simplicity and accessibility of the image that still captures the cutting-edge science described in the accompanying article, a novel algorithm to predict protein-ligand binding affinity.
|
Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize, 2022 |
Qinqing Liu, Peng-Shuai Wang, Chunjiang Zhu, Blake Blumenfeld Gaines, Tan Zhu, Jinbo Bi and Minghu Song for Figure 7 in |
|
The primary criteria for the prize are the visual impact of the image and the scientific information that it conveys. The prize is judged by the two editors of the journal and a committee member of the MGMS.
Past Winners: Jeffrey D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
2021 Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
Hoang Dang Vu, Hung Hung Tran, Cao Phuong Cong, Hue Minh Thu Nguyen, Toan T. Nguyen
for Figure 5 in Dang Vu et al. JMGM, 88, 2019, pp. 183-193
2020 Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
Najmeh Salehi, Mehriar Amininasab, Rohoullah Firouzi, and Mohammad Hossein Karimi-Jafari
for Figure 6 in Salehi et al. (2019) JMGM, 88, 2019, pp. 183-193
2019 Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
Laura Domicevica, Heidi Koldsø and Prof. Philip C. Biggin
Past Winners: JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize
| 2012 JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize | Professor Andrew J. Hanson and Sidharth Thakur | for Figure 23 in Hanson, A.J. & Thakur, S. (2012). “Quaternion Maps of Global Protein Structure”, J. Mol. Graphics Mod., 38: 256-278. |
 |
| 2011 JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize | Dr Christian Kandt | for Figure 1 in Raunest M. & Kandt C. (2011). “dxTuber: Detecting protein cavities, tunnels and clefts based on protein and solvent dynamics”, J. Mol. Graphics Mod., 29: 895-905. |
 |
| 2010 JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize | Professor Steven Plotkin | for Video provided as Supplementary Information in: Abrahamsson E. & Plotkin, S.S. (2010). “BioVEC: A program for Biomolecule Visualization with Ellipsoidal Coarse-graining”, J. Mol. Graphics Mod., 28: 140-145. |
AVI Movie [14MB] |
| 2011 JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize | Professor Bijaya Karki | for Figure 16 in: Bhattaraia, D. & Karki, B. B. (2009). “Atomistic visualization: Space–time multiresolution integration of data analysis and rendering”, J. Mol. Graphics Mod., 27: 951-968. |
 |
