Two NJC poster prizes were awarded during the Paris 2013 Symposium on Foldamers, which was held at the “Les Cordeliers” Conference Centre.
The two laureates received a one-year subscription to the journal and a RSC book. Our thanks go to the organizers of the conference for their help in organizing these awards, and our deep gratitude to all of the senior scientists who served on the jury to select the two following winners:
Elisabeth K. Nyakatura, who received her BSc in chemistry from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, in 2007. She then joined the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and successfully completed a MSc programme in Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases. After graduating from London in 2008, Elisabeth returned to the Freie Universität to pursue her PhD in the group of Prof. Koksch.Her research is now focused on the application of phage display to identify preferred interaction partners of chemically modified amino acids in helical protein environments. She also implements the unique properties of these nonnatural building blocks in the development of biological active peptides. It is this interface of chemistry and molecular biology that accounts for Elisabeth’s interest in using chemical means to address pathogen-host interactions.
Liam Byrne was born in Wegberg, Germany in 1984. He received his undergraduate and postgraduate education at the University of Leeds; the latter with Prof. Steve Marsden, working on the development of new synthetic applications of the catalytic aza-Wittig reaction. Liam is currently employed as a post-doctoral research associate with Prof. Jonathan Clayden at the University of Manchester. His research has sought to maximise conformational control in a class of helical foldamers and exploit this to achieve stereoselective transformations over long (nanometre) distances.
NJC wishes them continuing success in their research!
A list of all previous NJC Poster Prize winners can be found here.
