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Scholarships Recognize Informatics Grad Students’ Chemical Research
Huijun Wang and Xiao Dong
Indiana University School of Informatics doctoral students Huijun Wang and Xiao Dong have been recognized for their research which could advance significant pharmaceutical discoveries in areas such as cancer therapy.
The two have earned scholarships sponsored by the American Chemical Society’s Division of Chemical Information and Elsevier MDL. The scholarships were presented in Chicago in March, during the 233rd National Meeting of the ACS.
Dong and Wang are specializing in chemical informatics, the application of computer technology to chemistry in all of its forms, particularly in the pharmaceutical-manufacturing industry. Dong is part of a team pioneering the use of Web services and intelligence-based systems for possible use by pharmaceutical companies. Such tools enable scientists to gather more rapidly information needed to make decisions about which chemical compounds are most likely to be safe and effective drugs.
Wang is part of a research group that gathers, researches and analyzes data from chemical compounds that potentially could be used as anti-cancer agents in human tumor cell lines. The two students conduct their research under the direction of David Wild, assistant professor of informatics.
In 2005, Dong received the Elsevier MDL Excellence in Informatics Fellowship. In 2002, Elsevier MDL and the School of Informatics established this fellowship to provide funding support to deserving graduate students pursuing degrees in chemical informatics or bioinformatics.
The mission of the School of Informatics is to educate students in state-of-the-art information science and technology with an emphasis on human applications and interdisciplinary skills. The American Chemical Society, supporting scientific inquiry in chemistry, has close to 160,000 members working or studying in chemistry and chemical engineering and related fields.
www.informatics.indiana.edu/academics/chem.asp
www.mdl.com
Nine Win 2006 Scopus Young Scientist Awards in India
(Left to right) Dr. Tarun Souradeep, Inter University
Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pune; Dr.
Kumar Biradha, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur; Dr. Sunil Kumar Manna, Centre for DNA
Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad; Eduard
Cohen, Elsevier, Amsterdam; Dr. R.A. Mashelkar,
Indian National Science Academy; Frank Vrancken
Peeters, Elsevier, Amsterdam; Perdeep Kumar,
Elsevier, Delhi; Dr. Abhay Gopal Bhatt, Indian
Statistical Institute, Delhi; Dr. C.P. Safvan,
Inter-University Accelerator Centre, Delhi; Dr.
Rajesh S. Gokhale, National Institute of Immunology,
Delhi; Dr. Giridhar Madras, Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore; and Dr. G. Venkatasubramanian,
National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences,
Bangalore. Dr. Shankar Doraiswamy, National Institute
of Oceanography, Goa was not present at the ceremony.
At a glittering ceremony last December, nine scientists received “Scopus Young India Scientist Awards” in Delhi. Frank Vrancken Peeters, Elsevier’s managing director of academic and government markets, presented the awards. Each comprised a crystal trophy and a cash award.
Elsevier instituted the awards to honor India’s young research minds and propel them towards further development of science. The awards covered these subject areas: biological sciences, chemistry, earth sciences, engineering, mathematics, medicine and physics.
Senior academicians, subject experts and scientometricians representing the subject areas recognized by the awards selected the winners. Evaluation criteria were quantitative and qualitative. For the former, the Hirsch Index (a recently popular bibliometric tool), published papers and citation data were considered. Qualitative analysis examined whether research articles were path-breaking and helped develop new insights.
In his keynote address, Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, formerly general director of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, said: “India enjoys the highest position in the world with regard to returns of intellectual property per dollar spent. It is very heartening to see that Elsevier chose young scientists to honor and I congratulate them on this endeavor.”
Elsevier International Markets Director Eduard Cohen, who also spoke at the event, noted: “Currently India’s share of global research output is only around 2%, but this is rapidly rising. Studies reveal that access to electronic resources including ScienceDirect has positively impacted this nation’s research output.”
Elsevier colleagues in India hope to stage Scopus Young India Scientist Awards as an annual event and thus continue to honor Indian scientific contributions, many of which form part of scholarly content that Elsevier publishes and makes available to the global research community.
