The AstraZeneca Protein and Peptide Science Award
Nominations for this award are now open and close on 31 January 2025 17:00 GMT.
This open prize is awarded in recognition of excellence in any area of protein and peptide science.
- The award will be presented at the 2025 Protein and Peptide Science Group Early Stage Researcher Meeting held on 11 July 2025 at the University of Birmingham
- The winner will be the keynote speaker at the PPSG ESRM
- The winner will receive prize money of £1000
- This prize runs biennially
Guidelines
Find out about eligibility, how to nominate and the selection process.
- The prize is open to nominees based in the UK or internationally
- Nominees must be members of the RSC Protein & Peptide Science Interest Group
- Self-nominations are permitted and encouraged
- Members of the Protein & Peptide Science prize committee are not eligible to apply
Please email the following information to Dr Corinne Kay (Secretary, PPSG):
- Nominee’s name and contact details
- An up-to-date CV for the nominee (no longer than one A4 side, 11pt text). This should include a summary of their education and career and a maximum of 5 relevant publications or patents
- A short citation describing what the prize should be awarded for. This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence
- A supporting statement (up to 750 words) addressing the nominee’s contributions to protein and peptide science
- A statement (up to 100 words) describing how the nominee has contributed more broadly to the scientific community
- Please do not submit any additional information or references as these will not be considered
- Closing date for nominations: 31st January 2025, 17:00 GMT
- Presentation Confirmation: Nominees must confirm by the same date that, if selected, they will attend the PPSG ESRM on 11 July 2025 to receive their award and give the keynote lecture. While we aim for in-person presentations, we can arrange a hybrid option if travel is not possible due to personal circumstances
- Career Breaks and Circumstances: Nominees may additionally provide details of career breaks (e.g., parental or adoption leave, caring responsibilities, long-term illness, family commitments, as well as any other circumstances including long-term conditions or disabilities that have impacted their career). We encourage nominees to explain how these circumstances have affected their work
The PPSG reserves the right to rescind any prize if there are reasonable grounds to do so. Nominators and nominees must confirm, to the best of their knowledge, that there are no professional conduct issues preventing the nominee from receiving the prize. All prize winners will also be required to sign the RSC’s Code of Conduct Declaration for Recognition.
Our selection committee will base their evaluations on the overall quality of relevant contributions and achievements by nominees, in relation to the selection criteria listed below.
The scientific content of any supporting publications, as described in the supporting statement, is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it is published.
Relevant aspects
The selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations for this prize:
- Originality of research
- Innovation
- Impact of research
- Quality of publications and/or patents and/or software
- Professional standing
- Collaborations and teamwork
- Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominator
Relevant contributions
If multiple nominees are judged equally meritorious in relation to the above criteria, the panel has the flexibility to use information provided by the nominator on the nominee’s broader contribution to the chemistry community as an additional criterion.
Examples of relevant contributions could include, but are not limited to:
- Involvement with 九州影院 member groups/networks
- Leadership in the scientific community
- Service on boards, committees or panels
- Peer-reviewer
- Effective mentorship
- Advocacy for chemistry
- Public engagement and outreach
- Promotion of diversity and inclusion
- Teaching/demonstrating
The PPSG Prize Committee
All members of the PPSG Committee: Louise Walport (Chair), Chris Coxon, Rachael Dickman, Ian Eggleston, Stephen Hoare, Ellie Hyde, Corinne Kay, Lucia Lombardi, Louis Luk, Katherine MacFarlane, Nicholas Mitchell, John Offer, Claire Price, Marina Rubini, Andrew Wilson.
CEM Emerging Investigator in Protein and Peptide Science Award
Our 2024 award winner
Professor Dr. Nina Hartrampf, University of Zurich
In recognition of her contributions to flow-based peptide synthesis, particularly of post-translationally modified peptides and proteins, which enables and accelerates their systematic investigation.
This award recognises outstanding contributions made by an early career scientist working on protein and peptide science. Since establishing her independent group at the University of Zurich in 2020, Nina has been working to unlock the potential of continuous flow peptide synthesis as a key tool for chemical biology. In just a few years, her work has already resulted in a number of exciting publications exploring post-translationally modified peptides and proteins and new methods to synthesis aggregation prone targets. Nina’s also a key contributor to the peptide and protein research community through her work to organise conferences, virtual peptide socials and outreach events.
Nina received her award at the recent RSC PPSG Early-Stage Researcher Meeting in Edinburgh on 6th September 2024. We congratulate Nina on her award.