NEW YORK, June 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

The Reaxys PhD Prize recognizes young chemists conducting original and innovative research in organic, organometallic and inorganic chemistry 

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the 45 finalists for the 2015 Reaxys PhD Prize. Selected from over 450 submissions from around the globe, these 45 talented chemists join the Reaxys Prize Club; a community of inspiring minds making meaningful contributions to chemistry. As part of this community, the finalists have the opportunity to share their work, connect with internationally recognized chemists and drive their research forward.

All 45 finalists are invited to present their research at the 2015 Reaxys PhD Prize Symposium, September 7-8, 2015, in Hong Kong. Travel bursaries will be provided to support attendance and registration fees. As a new element of the Symposium, a small number of the finalists will be asked to give oral presentations. From the presentations, the Reaxys Advisory Board and prize coordinators will select the three final winners of the 2015 Reaxys PhD Prize based on the originality, innovation, relevance and methodological rigor of the presented work. The winners will be recognized at the awards banquet following the Symposium.

In its sixth year, the Reaxys PhD Prize recognizes chemistry PhD students and recent graduates, the prize continues to foster creativity in groundbreaking chemistry by identifying the chemistry leaders of tomorrow and empowering them to magnify the impact of their work.

"This year we are shining a brighter spotlight on the extraordinary research that comes together for this prestigious award," explains Prof. Dr. Martin Jansen, Director Emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany. As a member of the review board, he has managed the review and decision process along with other board members, all world-renowned chemists. "We also aim to enhance the experience for our new finalists and other attendees by having our Symposium at an international venue that fuels cutting-edge chemistry," says Jansen.

For more information about the Reaxys PhD Prize and Symposium, visit http://inspiringchemistry.reaxys.com/phdprize.  The Reaxys® solutions empower early discovery in drug development with access to over 500 million published experimental facts on compounds, reactions and bioactivity, including structure-activity relationship (SAR) data supporting hit identification, lead optimization and synthesis planning. For more information about Reaxys, visit elsevier.com/reaxys.

This year's finalists are:

• Jonathan Bauer from the Strohmann group, Dortmund University of Technology
• Keith Bentley from the Wolf group, Georgetown University
• Nicholas Bruno from the Buchwald group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Matthew Burns from the Aggarwal group, University of Bristol
• Cecilia Casadei from the Raven group, University of Leicester
• Pavla Eliasova from the Čejka group, Charles University
• Patrick Fier from the Hartwig group, University of California Berkeley
• Meng Gao from the Lei group, Wuhan University
• Alvaro Gutierrez Bonet from the Martin group, Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)
• William Hart-Cooper from the Bergman and Raymond groups, University of California Berkeley
• Hiroki Hayashi from the Ishihara group, Nagoya University
• Jian He from the Yu group, Scripps Research Institute
• Tomohiro Higashino from the Osuka group, Kyoto University
• Yunzhe Jiao from the Jones group, University of Rochester
• Andrew Jupp from the Goicoechea group, University of Oxford
• Eric Keske from the Crudden group, Queen's University
• Alexander Kilpatrick from the Cloke group, University of Sussex
• Sandra King from the Herzon group, Yale University
• Peter Korevaar from the Meijer group, Eindhoven University of Technology
• Matthew Langton from the Beer group, University of Oxford
• Hsin-Yu Lee from the Wong group, National Taiwan University
• Gang Li from the Norton group, Columbia University
• Lauren Longobardi from the Stephan group, University of Toronto
• Javier López Andarias from the Martín group, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
• Titus Masese from the Uchimoto group, Kyoto University
• Chiara Musumeci from the Samorì group, University of Strasbourg
• Kelli Ogawa from the Boydston group, University of Washington
• Steven O'Sullivan from the Murphy group, University of Strathclyde
• Henry Pepper from the George group, University of Adelaide
• Brandon Rosen from the Baran group, Scripps Research Institute
• Tanmoy Saha from the Talukdar group, Indian Institute of Science Education & Research, Pune
• Alexander Schoedel from the Zaworotko group, University of South Florida
• Sivaprakash Sengodan from the Kim group, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)
• Indranil Sinha from the Mueller group, University of Muenster
• John Tellis from the Molander group, University of Pennsylvania
• Shigenobu Umemiya from the Hayashi group, Tohoku University
• Daiki Umeyama from the Kitagawa group, Kyoto University
• Shin-nosuke Uno from the Urano group, University of Tokyo
• Amit Vernekar from the Mugesh  group, Indian Institute of Science
• Thorsten vom Stein from the Leitner group, RWTH Aachen University
• Xiao-Ye Wang from the Pei group, Peking University
• Jens Willwacher from the Fürstner group, Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung
• Tomohiro Yasukawa from the Kobayashi group, University of Tokyo
• Chenjie Zeng from the Jin group, Carnegie Mellon University
• Taotao Zou from the Che group, University of Hong Kong

About Elsevier  

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 33,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com.

Reaxys is a trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA, used under license. 

Media contact
Amy Burnis
Director, Strategic Communications
Elsevier
+1-617-803-8344
a.burnis@elsevier.com

SOURCE Elsevier