2024 MGMS Frank Blaney Award Nominations
7th MGMS Frank Blaney Award: Dr Weria Pezeshkian
Dr Pezeshkian holds a Novo Nordisk Assistant Professorship at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. He is the Principal Investigator of the Computational Microscopy Group (https://commicgroup.ku.dk), whose main focus is to develop multiscale computer simulation schemes, often referred to as a computational microscope, to bridge the gap between simple models and complex reality and provide mechanistic insight into cellular processes. Their “bottom-up” approach connects molecular-level interactions to emergent behaviours on a larger scale, providing experimentally trackable predictions at the macroscopic level.
The MGMS committee sends its warmest congratulations to Weria on this award.
6th MGMS Frank Blaney Award: Dr Matthew Grayson
Dr Matthew Grayson is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Bath in the Department of Chemistry. Dr Grayson’s research group are developing new, rapid, high-throughput computational screening approaches to the design of reactions through the use of molecular modelling and machine learning. These methods provide faster and more cost-effective alternatives to trial-and-error experimentation in chemical synthesis. More information can be found on the Grayson group website.
The MGMS committee extends its warmest congratulations to Matt.
5th MGMS Frank Blaney Award: Dr Kristaps Ermanis
Kristaps Ermanis is an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. He was appointed in 2021, having held a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Cambridge from 2017. Originally, he trained as a synthetic organic chemist, completing a PhD at the University of York on the total synthesis of phorboxazole B. His current research at Nottingham is focussed on automation and scale-up of computational methods, enabling large dataset generation and the computational design and discovery of new synthetic reactions.For more information about Kristaps’ research at Nottingham please visit the group website.
The MGMS Committee sends its congratulations to Kris!
4th MGMS Frank Blaney Award: Dr Albert J Kooistra
We are delighted to announce that the Fourth MGMS Frank Blaney Award has been awarded to Dr Albert J Kooistra, an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Albert was awarded his PhD by VU Amsterdam in 2015, and since 2018 has been based at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology in Copenhagen. His work concerns the structures and properties of G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), a key class of macromolecules which are embedded in membraned and thereby can govern access for smaller molecules to and from the cells. Alberts leads the team of developers of GPCRdb, a database (with accompanying search and display tools) of GPCRs which curates seqeunce alignments, structures, and known mutations, and which is therefore useful for anyone studying GPCR function or targeting GPCRs in drug design. Similarly, Albery has produced a similar resource for protein kinases, KLIFS.
The MGMS Committee warmly congratulates Albert on this award.
Previous MGMS Frank Blaney Awards:
3rd MGMS Frank Blaney Award: Prof. Fernanda Duarte-Gonzalez
We are delighted to announce that the Third MGMS Frank Blaney Award has been awarded to Prof. Fernanda Duarte-Gonzalez, an Associate Professor in Computational Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and a Tutorial Fellow in Chemistry at Hertford College, Oxford. Congratulations, Fernanda!
The MGMS Committee sends its congratulations to Fernanda!
2nd MGMS Frank Blaney Award
The Second MGMS Frank Blaney Award has been awarded to Dr Isidro Cortés-Ciriano, who is a Research Group Leader at EMBL-EBI, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK. His group’s work focuses on the exploration of cancer genomes using diverse sequencing techniques – from whole-genome sequencing to single-cell technologies – to better understand the underpinnings of cancer, with a particular focus on genome instability. In addition, the group integrates genomic and epigenomic data from preclinical models and clinical samples to discover genomic alterations predictive of response to anticancer therapies.
The MGMS Committee sends its congratulations to Isidro!
1st MGMS Frank Blaney Award
The first MGMS Frank Blaney Award has been awarded to to Dr Christopher Rowley, who is based in the Chemistry Department at Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, Canada. His group uses computer simulations to study biophysical chemistry and other complex chemical processes.
The MGMS Committee sends its congratulations to Christopher!
MGMS Silver Jubilee Award
The MGMS Silver Jubilee Award was renamed in 2018 to the MGMS Frank Blaney Award in memory of Dr Frank Blaney, a founder member of the MGMS.
10th MGMS Silver Jubilee Award was won by:
The MGMS is delighted to award the 10th MGMS Silver Jubilee Award to Dr David Glowacki. Dr Glowacki graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, but then moved to the UK, obtaining an MA from Manchester University in 2004 and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Leeds in 2008. He currently holds a Royal Society Research Fellowship at the University of Bristol and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University. Dr Glowacki’s work embraces both the sciences and the arts, exploring the interface between the two in terms of human perception; he has published in the fields of dynamics and non-equilibrium system simulations, but also scientific visualisation and digital aesthetics. The award recognises his ongoing, interdisciplinary work.
Past Recipients
| 10th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Dr David Glowacki, University of Bristol, UK. |
| 9th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Prof. Sereina Riniker , ETH Zürich, Switzerland. |
| 8th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Dr Peter Kolb, Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany. |
| 7th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Robert Paton, University of Oxford, UK. |
| 6th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Lynn Kamerlin, Uppsala University, UK. |
| 5th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Marcel Swart, Institut de Química Computacional, Universitat de Girona, Spain. |
| 4th MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Andreas Bender, Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics, University of Cambridge, UK. |
| 3rd MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Cherif Matta, Mount Saint Vincent University & Dalhousie University, Canada. |
| 2nd MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Graeme Day, University of Southampton, UK. |
| 1st MGMS Silver Jubilee Prize | Awarded to Nick Besley, University of Nottingham, UK. |
Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
Graphics play an essential role in the articles that are published in the Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, maybe even more than in other research journals. After a pause of some years we have decided to reinstate the yearly best graphic prize for JMGM. To honor our Editor, who unexpectedly passed away in 2017, the award is now called the Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize.
The Editors of the journal, Jamie Platts, Emilio Esposito and Michelle Sahai have gone through the articles of 2022 and unanimously selected Figure 3 published in: “Online tools to easily build virtual molecular models for display in augmented and virtual reality on the web” (JMGM Vol 114, July 2022, 108164) as the winning image for its deep scientific content. The Editors have selected this image because of the simplicity and accessibility of the image that still captures the cutting-edge science described in the accompanying article, a novel algorithm to predict protein-ligand binding affinity.
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Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize, 2023 |
Fabio Cortes Rodriguez, Matteo Dal Peraro, Luciano A. Abriata
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for Figure 3 in |
The primary criteria for the prize are the visual impact of the image and the scientific information that it conveys. The prize is judged by the two editors of the journal and a committee member of the MGMS.
Past Winners: Jeffrey D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
2022 Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
Qinqing Liu, Peng-Shuai Wang, Chunjiang Zhu, Blake Blumenfeld Gaines, Tan Zhu, Jinbo Bi and Minghu Song
for Figure 7 in Qinqing Liu et al. JMGM, Vol. 105, 2021, 107865
2021 Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
Hoang Dang Vu, Hung Hung Tran, Cao Phuong Cong, Hue Minh Thu Nguyen, Toan T. Nguyen
for Figure 5 in Dang Vu et al. JMGM, 88, 2019, pp. 183-193
2020 Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
Najmeh Salehi, Mehriar Amininasab, Rohoullah Firouzi, and Mohammad Hossein Karimi-Jafari
for Figure 6 in Salehi et al. (2019) JMGM, 88, 2019, pp. 183-193
2019 Jeffry D. Madura Memorial Graphics Prize
Laura Domicevica, Heidi Koldsø and Prof. Philip C. Biggin
Past Winners: JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize
| 2012 JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize | Professor Andrew J. Hanson and Sidharth Thakur | for Figure 23 in Hanson, A.J. & Thakur, S. (2012). “Quaternion Maps of Global Protein Structure”, J. Mol. Graphics Mod., 38: 256-278. |
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| 2011 JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize | Dr Christian Kandt | for Figure 1 in Raunest M. & Kandt C. (2011). “dxTuber: Detecting protein cavities, tunnels and clefts based on protein and solvent dynamics”, J. Mol. Graphics Mod., 29: 895-905. |
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| 2010 JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize | Professor Steven Plotkin | for Video provided as Supplementary Information in: Abrahamsson E. & Plotkin, S.S. (2010). “BioVEC: A program for Biomolecule Visualization with Ellipsoidal Coarse-graining”, J. Mol. Graphics Mod., 28: 140-145. |
AVI Movie [14MB] |
| 2011 JMGM/MGMS Graphics Prize | Professor Bijaya Karki | for Figure 16 in: Bhattaraia, D. & Karki, B. B. (2009). “Atomistic visualization: Space–time multiresolution integration of data analysis and rendering”, J. Mol. Graphics Mod., 27: 951-968. |
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