News

1

February

2020

Hannes Mikula: “The Dream Chemistry Award was an amazing experience.”

An interview with Hannes Mikula (Vienna University of Technology, Austria), the TOP 5 finalist of the Dream Chemistry Award 2019 with the project “Double-targeted In Vivo Synthesis of Drugs at the Site of Disease”.

How did you get to bioorthogonal chemistry?
It was a big coincidence that I’ve had the chance to attend lectures of two of the most influential chemists in the field of click and bioorthogonal chemistry: Barry Sharpless and Carolyn Bertozzi. I was a young and unexperienced student back then and first did not really get the message from Barry Sharpless, but Carolyn Bertozzi’s talk completely blew my mind and, fortunately, years later I was lucky to be able to start independent research in this exciting field.

How was preparing your Dream Chemistry Award project different from your day-to-day research work? Do you feel you have benefited from it somehow?
The Dream Chemistry Award was an amazing experience and I am still grateful to the Scientific Committee for selecting my project. It gave me the chance to present and talk about a “dream project” with so many experts in their fields. Meeting all the researchers at IOCB, but especially also my “competitors” was a great experience.

How did you come up with your project on prodrug double-targeting and in vivo synthesis?
It’s something I have been thinking of for several years now, but until recently there was no feasible approach that I could think of to achieve this goal. The idea popped into my head at the same time when I was preparing my application for the Dream Chemistry Award. So, it may have been serendipity.

How important do you think is imagination and the ability to dream for a scientist?
Let me quote George Iles (1918): “A magician of old waved a wand that he might banish disease, a physician today peers through a microscope to detect the bacillus of that disease and plan its defeat. The belief in miracles was premature, that is all; it was based on dreams now coming true.”

You served, and volunteered afterwards, as a paramedic. How has this experience affected your research and its aims?
It definitely did have an impact on my research interests, which are more and more in the life sciences aiming for new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

There is a motto on the website of your group: “Chemists do crazy stuff and we try to be as crazy as possible...” This seems to fit the DCA as well…
This pops into my head each time when I am attending a lecture or reading a publication that makes me think “Wow”, and the Dream Chemistry Award event at IOCB again showed me that I am right with this motto. Chemists definitely do “crazy stuff” in so many different ways.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
Yes! I’d like to say many thanks once again to all organizers, staff, colleagues and my competitors for such a great opportunity and experience!

Archive

13

March

2024

Warsaw

Call for Dream Chemistry Award 2024 nominations

We accept nominations for the Dream Chemistry Award 2024. Nominators must hold a PhD and have at least ten years of experience since the publication of their first scientific paper. The nominations are open until June 30.

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5

December

2023

Prague

This year's winner of the Dream Chemistry Award competition is organic chemist Mark Levin with his vision for revolutionizing the synthesis of functional molecules

The Dream Chemistry Award, a unique competition that does not count scientific articles in prestigious journals or affiliations with renowned universities, knows its winner for this year. Its contestants are young scientists within seven years of having received their doctorate. To be true to its name, it rewards ideas so novel that their realization is akin to fulfilling a bold human dream. The 2023 award has been given to Mark Levin from the University of Chicago, whose aim is to simplify the design of pharmaceutically active substances.

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10

October

2023

Prague

Finalists of the Dream Chemistry Award 2023 selected

The DCA Scientific Committee has selected the top projects from this year’s submissions. Five finalists are invited to present their projects in person during the contest’s final, which will be held at IOCB Prague on 4–5 December 2023.

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23

March

2023

Prague

Call for Dream Chemistry Award 2023 nominations

We accept nominations for the Dream Chemistry Award 2023. Nominators must hold a PhD and have at least ten years of experience since the publication of their first scientific paper. The nominations are open until June 30.

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6

December

2022

Warsaw

From capturing energy to capturing the Dream Chemistry Award 2022

Today is a big day for science. Young minds were awarded in the contest like no other. The scientists, visionaries, and dreamers, not hesitating to ask "What if?" achieved the prizes in the Dream Chemistry Award competition in Warsaw, Poland. This award is not about scientific achievements but about vision. This unique international contest promotes young researchers who want to step forward with innovative dreams. The Dream Chemistry Award was established in 2013 by Robert Hołyst from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (ICF), Warsaw, Poland. Since 2017 the contest has been co-organized with the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague), Prague, Czech Republic.

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21

November

2022

Warsaw

Dream Chemistry Award 2022 is coming

Nothing is better than dreaming about progress, innovation, and the future. All scientists have a dream, but not everyone dares to dream loudly, crossing schematic boundaries and jumping into the deep water. There are many grants supporting research and awards appreciating curious minds; however, there is only one unique award worldwide for visionary research projects in chemistry or a chemistry-related discipline. It is the Dream Chemistry Award.

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15

November

2022

Warsaw

Dream Chemistry Award 2022 Final – Schedule

Five finalists, selected by the DCA Scientific Committee were invited to present their dream projects and compete for the Dream Chemistry Award 2022. The final will take place on 5–6 December at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

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27

September

2022

Warsaw

Finalists of the Dream Chemistry Award 2022 selected

The DCA Scientific Committee has selected the top projects from this year’s submissions. Five finalists are invited to present their projects in person during the contest’s final, which will be held on December 5–6 in Warsaw, Poland.

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22

December

2021

Prague

The organizers and the winner on the Dream Chemistry Award 2021

We asked Jarad Mason, the winner of the 2021 Dream Chemistry Award, about his impressions of the competition and his future research plans; as well as the main organizers of the Dream Chemistry Award, Pavel Jungwirth and Robert Hołyst, what they think about this year's competition and its development in recent years.

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7

December

2021

Prague

Treating hypoxia with microporous water – the 2021 Dream Chemistry Award goes to Jarad Mason of Harvard University

The winners of the 2021 Dream Chemistry Award and the TOP 5 Prize have been decided. This year’s Dream Chemistry Award and the financial prize of EUR 10,000 goes to Jarad Mason of Harvard University for his project on treating hypoxia with microporous water.

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1

December

2021

Prague

Dream Chemistry Award 2021 Final – Live stream

The final of the Dream Chemistry Award 2021, which takes place on 6–7 December 2021 in Prague, will see five finalists who will present their dream projects.

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1

October

2021

Prague

Finalists of Dream Chemistry Award 2021 selected

The DCA Scientific Committee has selected the top projects from this year’s submissions. Five finalists are invited to present their projects in person during the contest’s final, which will be held at IOCB Prague on 6–7 December 2021.

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8

December

2020

Warsaw

Dreaming big about the smallest things: Dream Chemistry Award 2020

On the 1 December, the jury has announced the winner of this year's Dream Chemistry Award. Because of the pandemic restrictions, the whole event has been carried online.

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1

February

2020

Emiliano Cortés: “To have big dreams you need to imagine that things can be different and that you can contribute towards that.”

An interview with Emiliano Cortés (Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany), the TOP 5 finalist of the Dream Chemistry Award 2019 with the project “Lighting Up Chemical Reaction Pathways”.

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1

February

2020

Jeffrey Martell: “We need to think expansively to identify research goals that others haven't thought of.”

An interview with Jeffrey D. Martell (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), the TOP 5 finalist of the Dream Chemistry Award 2019 with the project “DNA Nano-Scaffolds for Rapid Discovery of Enzyme-Mimicking Catalysts”.

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1

February

2020

Yoeri van de Burgt: “Imagination and the ability to dream is essential. Most other logical and reasonable ideas have already been tried.”

An interview with Yoeri van de Burgt (Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands), the TOP 5 finalist of the Dream Chemistry Award 2019 with the project “Brain-Inspired Organic Modular Lab-on-a-Chip for Cell Classification”.

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1

February

2020

Hannes Mikula: “The Dream Chemistry Award was an amazing experience.”

An interview with Hannes Mikula (Vienna University of Technology, Austria), the TOP 5 finalist of the Dream Chemistry Award 2019 with the project “Double-targeted In Vivo Synthesis of Drugs at the Site of Disease”.

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1

February

2020

Yujia Qing: “The DCA gave me a unique opportunity to distill my abstract thoughts, which emerged during daily research, into a systematic plan.”

An interview with Yujia Qing (University of Oxford, UK), the winner of the Dream Chemistry Award 2019 with the project “Sequencing Life”.

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5

December

2019

Prague

Dream Chemistry Award 2019 goes to Yujia Qing of University of Oxford

Yujia Qing of University of Oxford has won the 2019 Dream Chemistry Award, an international competition for young scientists that took place on 2-3 December 2019, at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague). In addition to the Dream Chemistry Award statuette, the winner also received two monetary prizes totaling €11,000.

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4

December

2018

Warsaw

Dr. Eric Daniel Glowacki with the Dream Chemistry Award 2018

The winner of the global Dream Chemistry Award competition this year is Dr. Eric Daniel Glowacki from the Linköping University. The Scientific Committee awarding the prize praised the laureate's project on catalysts for the production of clean energy from the hydrogen peroxide.

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10

October

2018

Warsaw

Dream Chemistry Award 2018 knows its Finalists

This year’s edition of the Dream Chemistry Award knows its finalists. The Scientific Committee selected top 5 candidates and their projects and invited the authors to Warsaw, Poland, to the finale of the contest which will be held on 3-4 December 2018.

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6

December

2017

Prague

Winning project of the DCA 2017 focuses on new perspectives for cancer treatment

On 4-5 December 2017, the finale of the international scientific contest Dream Chemistry Award was held in Prague, organized by the leading chemistry institutes of the Czech and Polish Academy of Sciences.

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