The ESCOM Award

The ESCOM Science Foundation has agreed with the American Peptide Society to fund two new awards that will be known as The ESCOM Awards. The primary objective of the Awards is to recognize the research talents of two young scientists in the field of drug discovery.

RESULTS OF 1999 COMPETITION:

Winners: Elsa Locardi and Michael D. Shultz

Honorable Mention: Jens Buchardt, Assaf Friedler, Ted J. Gauthier, Stacy J. Keding, Sarah E. Ochsenhirt, Thorsten K.Oost, Shai Rahimipour, Bakary B. Toure, and T. Scott Yokum

For a photo gallery of scenes from the Escom Award ceremony, start by clicking here, and keep clicking "next" until you see a picture of Bob Hodges [this procedure covers disks 47 (last 5 photos) and 48 (first 13 photos)]. Alternatively, use the photo pages search engine, reached by clicking here and type in the full first or last name of your favorite future pharmaceutical scientist.

Each Award will be in the amount of $1,000 and is intended to be used to foster the recipient's further scientific development and enhance her/his knowledge of commercial pharmaceutical or biotechnology research and development by visiting such a laboratory for a period of 1-2 days or longer. The Awards Committee will make every effort to assist in finding a suitable laboratory for such a visit.

Competition for the Awards is open to any graduate student in candidacy for a Ph.D. degree, or any young postdoctoral fellow in academia who is not older than 30 years at the time of the 16^th American Peptide Symposium, who is presenting a poster at the Symposium. The Symposium administrative team needs to be notified of the candidates' willingness to be considered for an ESCOM Award by May 1, 1999. According to current U.S. law, provision of birthdates is optional, but applicants should recognize that this is the strong wish of the sponsoring Foundation.

The two winners who have presented the "most outstanding poster on a subject relevant to drug discovery by a young academic scientist" will be chosen by a Selection Committee consisting of Dr. Daniel Veber (SmithKline Beecham), Dr. Ruth Nutt (BioReason, Inc.), Dr. Garland Marshall (Washington University - St. Louis) and the Directors of the ESCOM Science Foundation. The Selection Committee will have access to the curriculum vitae, abstract, and mentor's recommendation letter prior to the 16^th American Peptide Symposium, and the selection process will include a brief personal interview during the Symposium.

Each prize winners is guaranteed, if s/he so desires, a short (approximately 1-2 day) visit at a commercial research and development laboratory relatively near to her/his University. The financial component of the Award should be applied towards the expenses of such a visit. The winners are also given the freedom to choose an alternative means of fulfilling the objectives of the Award. In either case, the ESCOM Science Foundation will request a one-page assessment from each winner of his/her experience with the Award.

The Awards, in the form of a check and a certificate, will be presented to the winners during the closing banquet of the 16^th American Peptide Symposium by one of the Directors of the Foundation.