The Distinguished Industrial Investigator Award, Senior Industrial Investigator Award, and Industrial Investigator Award were presented to Professor Klaus Müller, Dr. Werner Bonrath and Dr. Ian Lewis, and Dr. Mark Rogers-Evans at the Swiss Chemical Society Gala dinner in Lausanne on 5th September. The Swiss Chemical Society (Schweizerische Chemische Gesellschaft; SCG) and the Contact Group for Research Matters (Kontaktgruppe für Forschungsfragen; KGF) have collaborated to start this awards program, to honor individuals for their contributions to the Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The awards include a certificate and a cash prize.
Distinguished Industrial Investigator Award
Professor Klaus Müller, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, and ETH Zurich, Switzerland, won the KGF-SCS Distinguished Industrial Investigator Award. He received the award in recognition of his pioneering work in many important projects, including structure-based molecular design, biostructure research, and bioinformatics.
Müller studied at the ETH Zurich, where he completed his PhD in 1970 under the supervision of Albert Eschenmoser. In 1971, he carried out postdoctoral research with Gerhard Closs at the University of Chicago, USA, and in 1972, he was made lecturer at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. In 1974, he returned to the ETH Zurich, where he completed his habilitation in 1977 and subsequently joined the faculty. He moved to F. Hoffmann-La Roche in 1982, and held many positions there, including membership of the Board of Directors and General Secretary of the Roche Research Foundation (now the Roche Postdoc Fellowship program), until his retirement in 2009.
He is currently still associated with F. Hoffmann-La Roche as a consultant, and is also lecturer at the ETH Zurich. Müller serves on many editorial or advisory boards, e.g., of Angewandte Chemie, ChemBioChem, ChemMedChem, and Chemistry – A European Journal.
Müller’s research interests are in the design, synthesis, and properties of oxetanes, spirocyclic small-ring heterocyclic units, and small partially fluorinated alkyl groups.
Senior Industrial Investigator Award
Dr. Werner Bonrath, DSM Nutritional Products, Basel, Switzerland, and Dr. Ian Lewis, Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland, were honored with the KGF-SCS Senior Industrial Investigator Award.
Bonrath received the award for his work in the areas of vitamins, carotenoids, and fragances.
Bonrath studied chemistry at the Universities of Bonn and Münster, Germany. He gained his PhD 1988 under the supervision of Günther Wilke at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. After working at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, he joined F. Hoffmann-La Roche in 1989. He completed his habilitation at the University of Jena, Germany, in 2007, and is currently lecturer at the Universities of Jena, Germany, and Basel, Switzerland. Since the integration of Roche Vitamins into DSM, he has been Competence Manager, Heterogeneous Catalysis at DSM Nutritional Products in Kaiseraugst.
Bonrath is interested in all aspects of catalysis, in particular applications in the synthesis of isoprenoids, vitamins, carotenoids, and flavor compounds, and is focused on solid acid–base catalysis, hydrogenation reactions, and acetylene chemistry.
Lewis is recognized for his work on the synthesis of a stable cyclic hexapeptide Pasireotide (Signifor), the first drug approved for the treatment of Cushing’s disease.
Lewis studied chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where he then carried out a Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor R. Ramage. Before joining Novartis (originally Sandoz) in 1990, he did a Royal Society Post-doctoral Fellowship at ETH, Zürich, Switzerland, in the research group of Professor A. Eschenmoser. Between 2001 – 2002 he spent time as a Novartis Guest Scientist at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA, in the group of Professor K. Barry Sharpless.
Industrial Investigator Award
Dr. Mark Rogers-Evans, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland, won the KGF–SCS Industrial Investigator Award in honor for his work in medicinal chemistry, in particular his studies on small heterocyclic ring systems, such as oxetanes and azaspiro[3.4]octanes.
Rogers-Evans carried out his PhD with Brian A. Marples, Loughborough University, UK. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Raymond Bonnet, Queen Mary, University of London, UK, and with Victor Snieckus, University of Waterloo, Canada. He joined F. Hoffmann-La Roche in 1994, and moved to the Roche Chemistry Technologies & Innovation group in 2009.
Recent publications by Müller:
- Design of Libraries Targeting Protein–Protein Interfaces,
D. Fry, K.-S. Huang, P. Di Lello, P. Mohr, K. Müller, S.-S. So, T. Harada, M. Stahl, B. Vu, H. Mauser,
ChemMedChem 2013,
DOI: 10.1002/cmdc.201200540 - Oxetanes as Versatile Elements in Drug Discovery and Synthesis,
J. A. Burkhard, G. Wuitschik, M. Rogers-Evans, K. Müller, E. M. Carreira,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 9052,
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200907155
Recent publications by Bonrath:
- Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Synthesis of 4-Aminopyrimidines: A Scalable Industrial Process,
Ulla Létinois, Jan Schütz, Ralph Härter, Rinke Stoll, Florian Huffschmidt, Werner Bonrath, Reinhard Karge,
Org. Process Res. Dev. 2013, 17(3), 427–431.
DOI: 10.1021/op300190s - One Hundred Years of Vitamins—A Success Story of the Natural Sciences,
M. Eggersdorfer, D. Laudert, U. Létinois, T. McClymont, J. Medlock, T. Netscher, W. Bonrath,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 12960.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201205886 - A novel approach to timberwood fragrances,
Jan Schütz, Werner Bonrath,
Catal. Sci. Technol. 2012, 2, 2037–2038.
DOI: 10.1039/C2CY20241G
Recent publications by Lewis:
- Special ergolines efficiently inhibit the chemokine receptor CXCR3 in blood,
Gebhard Thoma, Rolf Baenteli, Ian Lewis, Darryl Jones, Jiri Kovarik, Markus B. Streiff, Hans-Guenter Zerwes,
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2011, 21, 4745–4749.
DOI: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2011.06.070 - Recent trends and observations in the design of high-quality screening collections,
Steffen Renner, Maxim Popov, Ansgar Schuffenhauer, Hans-Joerg Roth, Werner Breitenstein, Andreas Marzinzik, Ian Lewis, Philipp Krastel, Florian Nigsch, Jeremy Jenkins, Edgar Jacoby,
Future Medic. Chem. 2011, 3, 751–766.
DOI: 10.4155/fmc.11.15
Recent publications by Rogers-Evans:
- BACE1 inhibitors: A head group scan on a series of amides,
Thomas J. Woltering, Wolfgang Wostla, Hans Hilpert, Mark Rogers-Evans, Emmanuel Pinard, Alexander Mayweg, Martin Göbel, David W. Banner, Jörg Benz, Massimiliano Travagli, Martina Pollastrini, Guido Marconib, Emanuele Gabellieri, Wolfgang Guba, Harald Mauser, Matteo Andreini, Helmut Jacobsen, Eoin Power, Robert Narquiziana,
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2013, 23, 4239–4243.
DOI: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2013.05.003 - β-Secretase (BACE1) Inhibitors with High in Vivo Efficacy Suitable for Clinical Evaluation in Alzheimer’s Disease,
Hans Hilpert, Wolfgang Guba, Thomas J. Woltering, Wolfgang Wostl, Emmanuel Pinard, Harald Mauser, Alexander V. Mayweg, Mark Rogers-Evans, Roland Humm, Daniela Krummenacher, Thorsten Muser, Christian Schnider, Helmut Jacobsen, Laurence Ozmen, Alessandra Bergadano, David W. Banner, Remo Hochstrasser, Andreas Kuglstatter, Pascale David-Pierson, Holger Fischer, Alessandra Polara, Robert Narquizian,
J. Med. Chem. 2013, 56, 3980–3995.
DOI: 10.1021/jm400225m
