Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), the world’s authority for chemical information, announced today the 2013 SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry program participants. Since 2010, the program has been dedicated to providing Ph.D. students – and for the first time this year, postdoctoral researchers – from around the world an opportunity to help shape the future of chemical information.

The students and researchers selected will attend the 246^th ACS National Meeting & Exposition in Indianapolis, Ind., as part of their eight-day immersion with scientists, editors and staff of CAS and ACS Publications. Participants will also travel to Columbus, Ohio, to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the CAS databases are built and maintained, discuss challenges in scientific information, share feedback with SciFinder developers, and tour local centers of innovation and technology, such asTechColumbus, Battelle Memorial Institute and The Ohio State University.

Applicants for the 2013 SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry program are a more diverse group of scientists than ever before. Students and postdocs from 40 countries and more than 160 universities worldwide submitted applications. Their research interests also span the scientific spectrum, including synthetic chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology, biology and other disciplines, and reflect the broad coverage and global nature of the scientific information found in SciFinder.

“While we want to keep this group small enough for frank and open interactions, selecting just a few participants from a pool of so many high-quality and diverse applicants was a challenge,” said Chris McCue, vice president of marketing at CAS. “As a result, this year we will welcome 17 students and postdocs. We’re confident that they are the best-of-the-best, and we’re pleased to have them join our growing community of international scientists who continually share their unique perspectives on chemical information.”

Awarded for their academic accomplishments, commitment to research and appreciation of chemical information, the 2013 SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry are:

• P. Annecie Benatrehina, The Ohio State University, United States
• Annika Borrmann, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
• Thomas Faust, University of Sydney, Australia
• Neal Fazakerley, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
• Sourav Ghosh, Indian Institute of Science, India
• Matteo Gigli, University of Bologna, Italy
• Hilan Kaplan, Boston College, United States
• Andrea Kolb, Victoria University of Wellington and The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, New Zealand
• Gabriel LeBlanc, Vanderbilt University, United States
• Chong Liu, Nankai University, China
• Banothile Makhubela, University of Cape Town, South Africa
• Matthew McLaughlin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States
• Jeffrey Murphy, University of Alberta, Canada
• Ayelet Ofarim, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
• Karolina Pajak, Medical University of Lublin, Poland
• Zhanhu Sun, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
• Nobuya Tsuji, Kyoto University, Japan

The students and postdocs will join thousands of chemistry professionals to learn about “Chemistry in Motion” in Indianapolis at one of the most respected scientific gatherings in the world. The 246^th ACS National Meeting & Exposition will showcase contemporary research and future technologies that will transform the transportation industry in the 21^st century.

“Participation in this program was a wonderful experience and attending an ACS National Meeting is an amazing opportunity,” said Burcu Saner Okan, a student in the 2010 program from Sabanci University, Turkey. She presented her research on the use of functionalized graphene in fuel cells at the ACS National Meeting in New Orleans last April. “It’s a great way to share your research with the world and learn about the work of other scientists in your field.”

Above all, the SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to exchange ideas and network with peer scientists from around the world. “I think the most informative part was just meeting all of the other students from so many different countries and so many different backgrounds,” said Piper Klemm, a student in the 2012 program from the University of California, Berkeley. “I think it’s a really good experience to see other sides of chemistry.”

HighWire Press, the leading ePublishing platform for scholarly publishers, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Tizra to extend ebook functionality and integration to the HighWire Open Platform.

“HighWire provides an advanced digital publishing platform to help industry-leading scholarly publishers innovate and thrive,” said Tom Rump, Managing Director of HighWire. “We considered many alternatives before selecting Tizra, but concluded that their nimble ebook tools best complemented the HighWire Open Platform, helping us expand our focus on discoverability and creating the most intuitive user experience.”

“Discovery in the ebook environment goes beyond search – it is the end to end path that a reader takes in finding, assessing, and making a decision to invest in a book, whether that investment is time or money,” noted Tara Robenalt, Director of Product Management at HighWire. “With the addition of Tizra’s ebook reader features, HighWire publishers can blend books alongside their e-journals, offering an integrated cross-content solution that falls into the reader’s natural workflow.”

With help from Tizra, HighWire’s expanded ebook solution offers:

* Easy-to-read display, chapter navigation and page views, focusing on the page-turning experience;

* Social sharing options (Twitter, Facebook, bookmarking) at the page level;

* Increased discoverability through search engine optimization and the ability to provide readers with cross-content recommendations;

* Mobile optimization using responsive and adaptive design to support access and viewing on smartphones and tablets;

* Intuitive tools available to editorial staff giving them direct control over content updates.

“HighWire shares our enthusiasm for helping publishers and readers build communities around content,” stated Abe Dane, President and COO of Tizra. “We are extremely excited to work with a leader in digital publishing, whose outstanding technology and services combine with ours to make econtent more valuable and accessible.”

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced its cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science in order to provide access to Elsevier’s scientific databases for sixty Ukrainian research institutions.

A Declaration of Intent for Cooperation has been signed by the Ministry of Education and Science and Elsevier. The agreement includes access to Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. The Ukrainian Ministry also intends to licenseScienceDirect, Elsevier’s full-text platform for research literature and Elsevier’s SciVal research management solutions, which provide insights into research performance.

“Access to Elsevier content and solutions will allow Ukrainian academics to access the world’s leading research publications to study the outcomes of trustworthy research,” said Mr. Yevhen Sulima, Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Education and Science. “In an international context, access to Elsevier databases such as Scopus and ScienceDirect will increase the quality and impact of Ukrainian research.”

Charles Pallandt, Director Sales & Marketing at Elsevier said, “We are honored to be the first international publisher to collaborate extensively with the Ukrainian research community. I am confident the positive impact of expanding access to scientific information will result in increased publication output and will lead to an improved global ranking position.”

Informa Plc, the international publishing, business information and events company, today announces that Peter Rigby will retire as Group Chief Executive at the end of 2013. Stephen A. Carter, currently a non-executive board director, will succeed him on 1st January 2014.

Peter Rigby (58) first joined Informa in 1983 and has served as Chief Executive or Executive Chairman since 1988. Under his leadership, Informa has grown from a company valued at a few million pounds to a business with a market capitalisation exceeding £3bn.

Stephen A. Carter (49), who has been an Informa board director since 2010, was formerly President/Managing Director EMEA and President/Managing Director Global Managed Services at Alcatel-Lucent, the telecommunications and technology group. Before joining Alcatel-Lucent, he worked in a number of senior roles in the media and communications sector, including serving a term as the Founding Chief Executive of Ofcom, the UK Communications Industry Regulator.

The orderly leadership transition follows a sustained period of growth at Informa, which now employs more than 7,000 people across its Academic Publishing, Events and Business Information operations.

During his period of office, Peter Rigby designed and implemented a strategy to overhaul the original IBC print publishing business, anticipating the structural shifts underway in the sector. Through a combination of organic investment and several major transactions, he successfully led Informa through the most disruptive era for media companies – transforming it into a first-class digital data, information and events group. It now commands leading global positions across attractive growth markets in academic publishing, business information and exhibitions. In 2012, almost 75% of Informa’s publishing revenue was digital.

The Board of Informa conducted a thorough search process, working with the JCA Group.

Derek Mapp, Chairman, said:

“Informa owes a huge debt of gratitude to Peter, who has devoted a large portion of his career to the group, guiding it from humble beginnings into the leading global media group it is today. His boundless energy, enthusiasm and passionate management style has touched many people during his tenure and reflected in the unique culture prevalent across the group. I am sure that all of Informa’s stakeholders, including employees, shareholders and customers, will join me in thanking him for his enormous contribution to the company.

I am delighted that Peter’s business legacy will be continued by an executive of Stephen Carter’s calibre. The Board was unanimous that Stephen’s UK and international experience, knowledge and strategic understanding of the digital and technology industries, combined with his empathy for Informa’s unique culture and commercial success, made him a natural choice as Peter’s successor.”

Peter Rigby, Chief Executive, said:

“Like all good things, my time at Informa must come to an end. I decided many years ago that I would not overstay my welcome and leaving at the top, under my own terms and with Informa in great shape fulfils that promise to myself. 

Informa has been a major part of my life for the past 30 years, during which time the company has grown and evolved more than I could ever have imagined at the outset. I have enjoyed every minute of it and feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to manage the business over such a long and significant period.

For this, I owe many people a debt of gratitude, but in particular I would like to thank all my colleagues at Informa, both past and present. This is a business that is wholly dependent on the creativity, expertise and tenacity of its staff. This is what has made Informa the business it is today and it is what gives me confidence it will continue to flourish under Stephen’s leadership for many years to come.”

Stephen A. Carter said:

“Informa is a robust and resilient international business, with significant opportunities for growth and further digital innovation.

Peter and the team have built a powerful business. Our responsibility will be to continue the Informa tradition of delivering consistent returns to shareholders.”