By Società Chimica Italiana

Three Early-Career Researchers recognized by the Italian Chemical Society and Elsevier

The 2018 Reaxys SCI Early Career Researcher Award aims to promote young talent in the chemistry field in Italy

Rome, September 24, 2018 – The Young Group of the Italian Chemical Society (Società Chimica Italiana, SCI) and Elsevier, the information analytics business specializing in science and health, today announced the winners of the fourth edition of the Reaxys SCI Early Career Researcher Award during the XXII International Conference on Organic Synthesis (22-ICOS) in Florence. The award recognizes and promotes young talent in chemistry research in Italy.

This year’s three winners presented research projects in different chemistry fields:

• First prize was awarded to Erica Del Grosso for her project on DNA technology, specifically the design of DNA-based receptor that is able to transiently and orthogonally load or release a molecular cargo under dissipative control.
• Daniele Massella from the Polytechnic University of Turin received the second prize for the work done on bio-functional garments that can act as a wearable drug delivery platform and be employed as shields against the causes of skin illness.
• The third prize was awarded to Francesca Arcudi, from the University of Trieste, for her research on Carbon Nanodots (CNDs) and the study of their surface, in order to further understand their potentialities as next generation luminescent materials.

Members of the SCI young group were invited to submit an essay describing an original research project or idea that made use of a scientific database. The winning essays were judged by a jury of six chemistry experts from both Elsevier and the SCI, who evaluated the relevance, originality and innovativeness of the proposals:

• Leonardo Triggiani: Post-Doc Researcher in Physical Chemistry at the University of Bari
• Raffaele Cucciniello: Post-Doc Researcher in Environmental and Cultural Heritage Chemistry at the University of Salerno
• Lorenzo Botta: Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Rome Tor Vergata
• Dr Carlos Rodriguez del Rio, Customer Consultant Life Sciences, Elsevier
• Sally Makady, Chemistry Solutions Marketing Manager, Elsevier
• Carine Culot-Rypens: Customer Consultant Life Sciences, Elsevier

This is the fourth year that the SCI and Elsevier have collaborated together to recognize early career researchers in chemistry in Italy. The project aims to increase the visibility of young researchers’ work and to support their career development.

“SCI is very proud of this initiative organized together with Elsevier and believes that the Reaxys platform is a fundamental tool able to accompany and support young chemists in their research”, says Federico Bella, the Coordinator of the SCI Young Group. “Now in its fourth year of our collaboration Italian chemists, Elsevier’s initiative to support young researchers continues to grow. I am happy to announce that the winners of this award will present their research projects at the Merck-Elsevier Young Chemists Symposium to be held on the 19-21 November in Rimini.”

“It is important to us to support researchers at any stage of their career and we are pleased to be able to raise the visibility of the research of these talented young chemists in Italy specifically”, commented Petra Ullrich, Marketing Director Europe at Elsevier. “and it’s a pleasure for us to work together with SCI’s Young Group – now for the fourth year in a row – and we are impressed how this community of chemists around academic and professional development grew over the years.”

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