Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry goes to Prof. Helma Wennemers
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Helma Wennemers, Professor at the LOC, has won this year's Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry. She got the award for her work on the rational design and development of peptide-based asymmetric catalysts and bioinspired molecular scaffolds for applications in supramolecular and biological chemistry.
Prof. Helma Wennemers is a purposeful scientist, as her curriculum vitae confirms. Born in Germany, Wennemers studied chemistry at the University of Frankfurt and com-pleted her PhD in 1996 at Columbia University in New York. After a postdoctoral stay with Prof. Hisashi Yamamoto at the Nagoya University in Japan, she moved to the University of Basel, where she was appointed assistant professor in 2003. Since 2011, she has been Professor of Organic Chemistry at ETH Zurich.
Her research group at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences mainly focuses on the development of small molecules with functions normally performed by larger macromolecules in nature. The goal is their practical application and a broader understanding of their properties at the molecular level. For this ambition, Prof. Wennemers and her team are developing peptide-based asymmetric catalysts and collagen molecular scaffolds (e.g. used for tumor targeting) for which she received this year’s Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry.
Special Award for junior scientists
The Research Center for Functional Molecular Systems has created the Netherlands Award for Supramolecular Chemistry due to the good research achievements in the Netherlands in the field of supramolecular chemistry. However, this award goes every two years exclusively to experienced, internationally renowned scientists. This year it went to Dr. Chad A. Mirkin of the Northwestern University/USA. Meanwhile, the Scholar variant for outstanding young talents in the field of supramolecular medicine is also awarded alternately. The winner of the Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry - in this case Prof. Wennemers - has the opportunity to present her work at various universities in the Netherlands during a lecture tour whilst getting in touch with other leading scientists of this research field. For more information, please follow the links below.
external pageC&EN News Article
external pageThe Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry