Thieme and Science of Synthesis launch an international scientific award for women in chemistry

With their newly created “Dr. Margaret Faul Award for Women in Chemistry” Georg Thieme Publishers and the synthetic methodology reference work Science of Synthesis will honor young women chemists. The award, which will be issued for the first time next year, comprises 5,000 Euros prize money and is intended to support the young awardee in her career. Award co-founder and Science of Synthesis editorial board member Dr. Margaret Faul lends her name to the award. Nominations will be accepted as of today.

The “Dr. Margaret Faul Award for Women in Chemistry” was designed to honor women scientists within the first 15 years of their independent career who have made a significant contribution to synthetic chemistry. In addition to organic chemistry, the scope of research considered by the award committee includes organometallic chemistry, medical and biological chemistry, molecular design, and materials chemistry. Chemists in research and industry around the world are invited to nominate worthy colleagues for the award.

The winner will be chosen by an expert jury and will be presented with the award by Dr. Margaret Faul. “This is the first major international award that is focused on women in organic chemistry and organic synthesis. I am very excited to honor women scientists whose innovative ideas and groundbreaking approaches advance new, sustainable technologies and processes,” says Dr. Margaret Faul, who earned her PhD in synthetic organic chemistry at Harvard University. Since 2003, Margaret Faul has been at Amgen, Inc., and is currently Vice President Process Development responsible for the development and the commercialization of Amgen’s portfolio of synthetic and biological products. In 2017, Dr. Faul joined the Science of Synthesis editorial board.

Dr. Faul heads the award review committee together with Professor Alois Fürstner, Managing Director at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (Max-Planck-Institut for Coal Research), Mülheim on Ruhr, Germany, and chairman of the Science of Synthesis editorial board. “I was thrilled when Georg Thieme Publishers approached me with the idea for the first award for women in chemistry,” Professor Fürstner says. “The scientific community has been talking a lot about creating opportunities for young female scientists, and I am happy to help Thieme make this substantial contribution.”

The Dr. Margaret Faul Award for Women in Chemistry will be presented for the first time at the European Symposium on Organic Chemistry (ESOC), which will take place in Vienna on July 14th through 18th, 2019. “We are excited that ESOC committee chairman Professor Adriaan Minnaard as well as Professor Michael Schnürch and Professor Nuno Maulide, chairmen of ESOC 2019, have agreed to organize the award with us,” says Dr. Fiona Shortt de Hernandez, Director for Digital Services and Strategic Partnerships and managing editor of Thieme’s Science of Synthesis. The winner of the award will present her research in a lecture at the conference.

For further information on the Dr. Margaret Faul Award for Women in Chemistry and Science of Synthesis, please visit www.thieme-chemistry.com. Award nominations will be accepted by Dr. Marcus White, Scientific Editor at Thieme, from now until December 14th, 2018 (marcus.white@thieme.de).