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Chemistry student mixes it with Nobel Laureates

7 June 2006

Monash PhD researcher Ms Penelope Mayes has been selected to attend the 56th annual Lindau meeting, where Nobel Laureates mix with the cream of students in their field from around the world.

Chemistry PhD researcher Ms Penelope Mayes is one of seven Australians selected to attend the 56th annual Lindau meeting, where she will meet Nobel Laureates.

Ms Mayes is one of seven Australian final-year chemistry PhD students hand-picked by the Australian Academy of Science and the Lindau Council to attend the five-day meeting, being held this month in Germany.

While in Lindau, Ms Mayes will attend lectures and participate in round-table discussions and informal gatherings with 25 Nobel Laureates and 500 other young scientists.

"In Australia, you don't get many opportunities to listen to, let alone meet, people who are world leaders in their field," Ms Mayes said. "When an opportunity like this comes up, you take it."

Ms Mayes said she was particularly looking forward to meeting Barry Sharpless and Ryoji Noyori, who part shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001 for developing catalytic asymmetric synthesis -- a new way of producing molecules that has transformed drug development.

Her own work uses similar principles of synthesis to create new steroid-based drugs that can be more easily adapted to treat a wider variety of diseases.

Ms Mayes' supervisor, Dr Patrick Perlmutter, said he was not surprised she had been selected to represent Australia at the meeting.

"It would have disappointed me greatly if she had not been selected," he said. "Penny is simply an outstanding student ... she has an extraordinary ability to process very complex content very quickly."

The Lindau conference was established in 1951 to enable Nobel Laureates in chemistry, physics and physiology/medicine to have open and informal meetings with students and young researchers, with disciplines rotated each year.

Ms Mayes' trip is being funded by the Monash Research Graduate School, the Monash Faculty of Science and the School of Chemistry.

As part of her selection, she recently attended the Australian Academy of Science's Annual General Meeting in Canberra, where she met the other Australian delegates.

Ms Mayes said she had no idea she would be attending such events when she began her studies. "I didn't even know I was going to do a PhD until I finished honours," she said.