Elsevier announces winners of the 2017 Reaxys PhD Prize

Elsevier, the information analytics business specialising in science and health, announced the three winners of the 2017 Reaxys PhD Prize at its annual Symposium held in Shanghai, China.

Celebrating top research by leading young chemists across the globe, the Reaxys PhD Prize recognizes innovative and original research in chemistry, with an emphasis on synthesis.

Since its inception eight years ago, the Reaxys PhD Prize received more than 3,500 submissions from over 50 countries.

The 2017 Reaxys PhD Prize winners are:

• Joshua Barham from the Murphy group, University of Strathclyde
Presentation title: Contra-Thermodynamic Hydrogen Atom Transfer: The Selective N-CH3 Functionalisation of Trialkylamines
• Moritz Malischewski from the Seppelt group, Freie University of Berlin
Presentation title: Organometallic Chemistry in Superacids
• Changchun Yuan from the Liu group, Sichuan University
Presentation title: Total Syntheses of Bolivianine, Sarcandrolide J and Shizukaol D: Inspired but not Limited by Nature

"I am very happy. The competition was very intense: there were so many applications and the level of the finalists’ research was great.

"Being at the Reaxys PhD Prize Symposium sharing my work is a great opportunity to meet colleagues and make friends,” said Moritz Malischewski, Freie University of Berlin, one of the three winners.”

"The quality of the oral presentations was great. All 10 were very good.

"As ever the decision process was not easy we had to consider the reviewer comments, and our review of the presentations.

"But in the end, all of the review committee agreed, and I think we have three outstanding winners,” said Prof Henry N. C. Wong, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The winners were selected from a group of 10 finalists, who were challenged to present the key aspects of their research at the Symposium.

The presentations were judged by members of the Reaxys Advisory Board and the Reaxys PhD Prize Review Board.