Merck Chemicals Upcoming/Post Events

Kuala Lumpur, May 27, 2010 – Following the success of its previous installments, innovative pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck Sdn. Bhd., a member company of the multinational Germany-based Merck KGaA corporation, has brought the Merck Young Scientist Award (MYSA) back for a third run this year.

With the objective of promoting and recognising outstanding home-grown researchers, the program calls on all Malaysian post-graduate students (Masters or PhD) pursuing their academic qualifications in the fields of bioscience and chromatography between 2008 – 2010 to submit their published research papers for the chance to win the prestigious award trophy as well as lucrative cash prizes.

Incepted in 2008, MYSA will award the most innovative researches which have been published or accepted for publication in year 2008 in two fields of research, Biosciences (proteomics, protein expression, signal transduction and disease) and Advance Chromatography research (discovery in liquid chromatography especially in natural products analysis, drug discovery, food technology and vaccine purification).

The MYSA program is endorsed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Higher Education and the Institute of Chemistry Malaysia; the award panel of judges consists of laureates from premier local institutions of higher learning and specialists from Merck KGaA, Germany and US based subsidiary EMD Chemicals Inc., who are also co-sponsors of the award.

Mr. Justus Krause-Harder, Managing Director for Merck Sdn. Bhd. said “We hope this award will be a great encouragement for our outstanding young local scientists. At Merck, we understand the importance of motivating the next generation of scientists to embrace the values of innovation and excellence which Merck places at the heart of our core values—this ensures that we can carry forward today’s innovations into the future.”

Mr. Justus Krause-Harder, Managing Director for Merck Sdn. Bhd.

Winner of the MYSA 2009 Chromatography category, Ms. Lai Choon Sheen, who is now a Research Officer at the Centre for Drug Research whilst pursuing her PhD, said: “It has given me great motivation to persevere further in my research towards discovering and developing more efficacious, safer and cheaper drugs for the benefit of those in need. The whole process of participating and contending for the Merck Young Scientist Award has been very rewarding.”

Ms. Lai Choon Sheen, winner of the MYSA 2009 Chromatography category

Winner of the MYSA 2008 Biosciences category, Dr. Puteri Shafinaz, who is now a senior lecturer at Universiti Malaya’s Department of Molecular Medicine as well as the university’s Head of Unit, Medical Biotechnology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, said: “Winning the Merck Young Scientist award has led to a boost of recognition and people are interested to know more about the cancer proteomics and lectin research that my team is working on.”

Dr. Puteri Shafinaz, winner of the MYSA 2008 Biosciences category

Prospective participants can get more information by downloading the entry form here.