Current Style: Standard
** The 2013 Call has now been published **
The Jason Farradane Award is made to an individual or a group of people in recognition of outstanding work in the information profession.
Criteria
The Award is given in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the information profession, by meeting one or more of the following criteria:
- raising the profile of the information profession within an organisation or field of endeavour in a way which has become an exemplar to others;
- raising the awareness of the value of information in the workplace;
- demonstrating excellence in education and teaching in information science;
- a major contribution to the theory and practice of information science or information management.
The 2012 Award
The 2012 UKeiG Jason Farradane Award has been awarded to the Chemoinformatics Research Group in the Information School, University of Sheffield. The Chemoinformatics Research Group has been one of the leading centres worldwide for chemoinformatics research for over forty years, and has been noted as providing “the most widely recognized and well-established research and teaching base in the field.” The Group has demonstrated over many years the contributions that can be made by those with a specifically information perspective that complements more obviously chemical and biological studies. The Group’s work was initiated by Michael Lynch, who came to Sheffield in 1965 from the post of Head of Basic Research at Chemical Abstracts Service.
The Award is made in recognition of the Chemoinformatics Research Group’s work in raising the profile of the information profession within a field of endeavour in a way which has become an exemplar to others; demonstrating excellence in education and training; and for their major contribution to the theory and practice of information science. An important part of the Group’s educational activities has been the training of students who have subsequently gone on to join the chemoinformatics workforce, with some of them now in senior positions. The nomination notes that the Group’s first publication dates from 1967 and it has made very significant contributions to the theory and practice of chemoinformatics over a period of more than four decades, by means of both its published research and its extensive collaborations with industry. Their work spans search algorithms and data structures; 3D and patent (or Markush) searching; ligand docking and pharmacophore mapping; and the detailed comparison of different tools for some chemoinformatics application to enable the identification of the most effective and/or efficient approach. The Group's industrial collaborations over the years include joint research projects with many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical, agrochemical and software companies.
The Group also organizes the Joint Sheffield Conference in Chemoinformatics, which has been held every three years since 1998 and is one of the two largest regular conferences that focus on chemoinformatics.
The judges had no hesitation in awarding the three current members of the research group - Val Gillet, John Holliday and Peter Willett - the 2012 UKeiG Jason Farradane Award.
The presentation was made at Internet Librarian International 2012 at the Olympia Conference Centre on Wednesday 31st October.
Photo: Martin White presenting the certificate to Peter Willett (image courtesy of Information Today & photovibe).
About Jason Farradane
Jason Farradane graduated in chemistry in 1929 at what is now Imperial College and started work in industry as a chemist and documentalist. After working in research at the Ministry of Supply and the Admiralty during World War II, he first made an impact with a paper on the scientific approach to documentation at a Royal Society Scientific Information Conference in 1948.
He was instrumental in establishing the Institute of Information Scientists in 1958 and the first academic courses in information science in 1963 at the precursor of City University, where he became Director of the Centre for Information Science in 1966. Of Central European origin, his commitment to science was reflected in the name he created for himself - a combination of Faraday and Haldane, two scientists he particularly admired. On the research side his main contributions lay in relational analysis, which can now perhaps be seen as providing a precursor to work in the area of A.I., and the concept of information. He saw information science as a step towards understanding and better organizing ourselves.
All enquiries to awards@ukeig.org.uk
Previous Winners
2012 Chemoinformatics Research Group, University of Sheffield
2011 UKCoRR
2010 Dr. Shawky Salem
2009 not awarded
2008 not awarded
2007 Caroline Williams and the Intute Community Network
2006 University of Warwick Library for The Learning Grid
2005 Michael Koenig, Dean of the College of Information and Computer Science at Long Island University
2004 Julia Chandler, Internet and Intranet Manager at the Department for International Development
2003 London Metropolitan University and the TUC for the web site "The Union Makes us Strong: TUC History Online"
2002 William Hann for Freepint
2001 Professor Bruce Royan for SCRAN