Two prizes for RESOLV offspring
At the ACS Fall 2023 meeting Prof. Konrad Meister received the The Journal of Physical Chemistry B and PHYS Division Lectureship Award for 2023 for his scientific contributions on the field of physical chemistry. This award is given annually to scientist with a major impact on the research areas of biophysics, biomaterials, liquids, and soft matter.
Already in the early days of RESOLV, Meister and RESOLV spokesperson Martina Havenith studied the solvation dynamics of Anti Freeze Proteins and the role of water in biological processes, one of the central questions addressed in RESOLV. Later he joined the group of Huib Bakker am NWO Institute AMOLF and published seminal research papers in collaboration with RESOLV and RESOLV's international faculty. He moved on to become an Assistant Professor for Biochemistry/ Physical Chemistry first at the University of Alaska and now at Boise State University, USA.
Prof. Matthias Heyden received the ACS COMP OpenEye Cadence Molecular Sciences Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in recognition of the novelty and importance of Heydens work in computer simulations for gaining atomistic insights into molecular systems. The biannual award is awarded to outstanding new faculty members.
From 2013 to 2017 Heyden was a RESOLV Early Career Research Group Leader. He then obtained a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor at the School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, USA. Heyden continues to collaborate with members of RESOLV members.
Promotion of young talents in RESOLV
One of the major goals in RESOLV is the early promotion of young talents to enable early academic independence. Early Career Research (ECR) Group Leaders are empowered by granting full academic privileges, free access to core facilities and receive independent funds for their research and for attending international conferences. The early career researchers are from the start on integrated in the International Faculty of RESOLV which enbales them to build up their own international networks. We are convinced, that the future leaders in academia and in industry need to be from trained early on to work in international, intercultural teams, and benefit from working experience in different groups worldwide. The concept pays off, from 32 RESOLV ECR Group Leaders, 25 are now full Professors at top research facilities. RESOLV starts promotion early with specialized training platforms for both PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.