The Dream Chemistry Award awaits chemists with ambitious scientific ideas
6 April 2017
The dreams of young researchers and engineers can change the world. It is the aim of the Dream Chemistry Award contest to promote these dreams. This year's contest has just been launched and for the first time, leading chemistry institutes of the Polish and Czech Academies of Sciences have joined forces in its organization.
The first days of April see the launch of a Dream Chemistry Award contest 2017 for the most interesting, visionary scientific project in the field of chemistry and related disciplines. This prestigious contest is addressing young scientists with a PhD in natural or technical sciences. The winner of this year's competition receives a prize of 10,000 euro.
The Dream Chemistry Award has been organized since 2013. In 2017, for the first time, the contest will be held in Prague. The past organizer, the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) in Warsaw, has been joined by the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague).
“The involvement of the leading institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences raises the status of the Dream Chemistry Award and demonstrates how important it is for the scientific community to support people who are very well-educated while at the same time striving towards ambitious, perhaps difficult-to-achieve, but clearly outlined goals. Young scientists will benefit from our cooperation because, thanks to the contribution of the Czech side, the competition has evolved from a two-year event to an annual event, organized alternately, one year in Warsaw, the next in Prague,” says Professor Marcin Opallo, the director of IPC PAS.
“Dependency on the grant system tends to limit young scientists in formulating their scientific ideas and shapes them as realistic and earthbound as possible,” says Dr. Zdeněk Hostomský, Director of IOCB Prague. “They are asked to proceed step by step and do not have much space to dream big. That’s why we are happy we can be part of an alternative that completely switches the perspective: instead of being confined to restricted conditions they can let their ideas fly free.”
The Dream Chemistry Award 2017 is a contest for scientists under 37 years of age who presented their doctoral thesis in 2010 or later and who have been nominated by respected senior researchers worldwide. Nominations should be sent electronically by July 31, 2017 via the contest website. Eligible nominees will be asked to submit their application by August 31, 2017. Authors of the five best projects will be invited to present their project in Prague on December 4, 2017, where the winner will be decided by the Scientific Committee.
The coordinators of the Dream Chemistry Award 2017 contest are Professor Pavel Jungwirth (IOCB Prague) and Professor Robert Holyst (IPC PAS). “The truly powerful changes of the modern world came as results of successive scientific and technical breakthroughs, born of the visionary ideas of researchers and engineers. We want to lend our support to young scientists who have the courage to dream, because they are the ones who will soon transform the world again,” stress Professors Jungwirth and Holyst.
More information about the Dream Chemistry Award contest can be found at www.dreamchemistryaward.org.
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