Chemical Structure Association Trust honors Prof. Dr. Alexander Lawson with 2008 Mike Lynch Award

In recognition of his major contributions to the field of cheminformatics and development of CrossFire Beilstein

Frankfurt, Germany, May 15, 2008 – Alexander “Sandy” Lawson, PhD, Director, Research & Development, Elsevier Information Systems GmbH, Frankfurt, will receive the prestigious Mike Lynch Award from the Chemical Structure Association (CSA) Trust (www.csa-trust.org). This honor is bestowed upon Prof. Lawson in recognition of 25 years of outstanding accomplishments in the field of cheminformatics, specifically relating to the development of the CrossFire Beilstein (www.info.crossfirebeilstein.com) database and the origination of the CrossFire concept that revolutionized chemical information and reaction and structure searching.

The triennial CSA Trust Mike Lynch Award recognizes and encourages outstanding accomplishments in education, research and development activities that are related to the systems and methods used to store, process and retrieve information about chemical structures, reactions and properties. The award will be presented to Prof. Lawson on 1 June 2008 during the International Conference on Chemical Structures, Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands.

René Deplanque, Ph.D., Director of FIZ CHEMIE Berlin and a member of the Board of Trustees of the CSA Trust, called Prof. Lawson “the scientific genius behind the development of the Beilstein databank.” He continued, “His combination of profound knowledge of chemistry, reactions, molecular classification and search systems makes him one of the most distinguished people in the area of cheminformatics. His pioneering achievements range from the CrossFire concept and the development of the Lawson Number on the one hand, to automatic methods to translate chemical structures and free text in both directions, on the other hand. I am very glad that his lifetime achievements are now honored by receiving the CSA Mike Lynch Award.”

“I am deeply honored to join the ranks of previous Mike Lynch Award recipients, whom I consider true visionaries in the field of Cheminformatics,” Prof. Lawson said.

One of the pioneers of cheminformatics, Prof. Lawson has played an instrumental role in shepherding the progress of CrossFire Beilstein as it moved into the electronic age – from its beginnings as the print Handbuch der Organischen Chemie (1881) to a powerful multimedia information system.

Working in close collaboration with a talented and innovative development team, some of Prof. Lawson’s major achievements include: