Elsevier announces the winner of the 2015 Tetrahedron Prize

Elsevier and the Executive Board of Editors of the Tetrahedron journal series are pleased to announce that the 2015 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry has been awarded to Professor William L. Jorgensen, Yale University, USA. He receives the award for his outstanding contributions to organic chemistry.

Professor Stephen Martin, Chairman of the Editorial Board of Tetrahedron Journals, said on announcing this year's winner, "The Tetrahedron Prize for 2015 honors Professor William Jorgensen of Yale University for his outstanding contributions to the general field of computational chemistry and its applications to organic and medicinal chemistry, including chemical reactions, host-guest interactions, protein-ligand interactions, and drug discovery. His efforts in computational chemistry, especially in the modeling of organic and biomolecular systems in solution, have led to the development of methods that have been widely applied in bioorganic and medicinal chemistry. For example, he was the first to demonstrate the power of free-energy perturbation calculations for molecular systems and to prove their utility in the design of enzyme inhibitors. The success of his approach is apparent in his reports of potent inhibitors for multiple targets including HIV reverse transcriptase."

Professor Jorgensen's research covers both computational and experimental chemistry, whereby he combined quantum, statistical, and molecular mechanics to model chemistry in solution. He has been a leader in computational studies of organic and enzymatic reactions in solution, molecular recognition, protein-ligand binding, and molecular properties. His OPLS force fields and TIPnP water models are widely used. Together with his team of researchers, he is also actively engaged in de novo drug design and synthesis, particularly for anti-infective, anti-proliferative, and anti-inflammatory agents.

Professor Jorgensen said, "Receipt of the 2015 Tetrahedron Prize is a much appreciated, wonderful honor. I express my gratitude to the Executive Board of Editors of Tetrahedron publications for recognizing our work and for being a steadfast pillar in the organic chemistry community. I have known many of the past recipients and their achievements. To be included in the list is both thrilling and humbling. Of course, the award also recognizes the great talents and efforts of my many dedicated co-workers. It has been a magical voyage in which our fundamental research on modeling organic chemistry in solution evolved into powerful methodology for the discovery of potent enzyme inhibitors."

The Tetrahedron prize consists of a monetary award of $10,000 and will be presented during the 2016 Fall National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, in Philadelphia, USA (21-25 August 2015).

In a video interview Professor Jorgensen speaks about winning the award and provides some personal and scientific insights about some of his contributions to organic chemistry: https://youtu.be/dPoSeHt4S_A

Provided by Elsevier