AMMA Naomi Haworth Early-Career Award

The AMMA Naomi Haworth Early-Career Award recognises an individual who, although is early within their career, has demonstrated strong impact in computational molecular sciences and service to the molecular modelling community. The award is named after and honours the contribution of Dr Naomi Haworth to this same community.

Previous AMMA Naomi Haworth Early-Career Awardees

2023 - Stephen Sanderson

About Dr Naomi Haworth (1977 – 2019)

The AMMA Early-Career Award was established in 2023 in Honour of Dr Naomi Haworth, a computational chemist who significantly contributed to using computational chemistry approaches to accurately calculate pKa values and stability of disulphide bonds to guide chemical reactions. Naomi was also a passionate educator and particularly interested in using simulations in undergraduate chemistry teaching.

Naomi completed a Bachelor of Science in first class Honours from the University of Melbourne (1998). She then moved to the University of Sydney, where she completed her PhD in computational chemistry (2003) under the supervision of Prof Dr George Bacskay. Her PhD focused on quantum mechanical calculations for the prediction of thermochemistry and kinetics of combustion reactions.

Her postdoctoral work included positions at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Deakin University, the University of Sydney (working in the group of Prof Leo Radom) and the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, funded by an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship. In 2014, Naomi joined the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electronic Science to work in the group of Prof Michelle Coote at ANU. During that time, she played an instrumental role in understanding the use of electric fields to control non-redox reactions and developing methodology for pKa calculations to control reactions in acidic conditions.

During her postdoctoral work, Naomi expanded her interest in using computational approaches to understand biological systems and materials. In 2017, Namoi returned to the University of Sydney to work with Prof Leo Radom to understand the chemistry of sulphur radicals in biological systems.

Selection Criteria

  • Quality and impact of published work in journals of international reputation and the contribution of the work to computational molecular sciences.   

  • Service to and impact in the molecular modelling community.

Eligibility Criteria

  • The applicant should be within 5 years following the award of a doctoral degree, allowing for career disruptions.

Conditions of award

The conditions of the AMMA ECR award are as follows:

  • Applications will be evaluated by the full AMMA committee, with a decision on the award made before the AMMA meeting.

  • The awardee will be presented with a certificate and $250 at the AMMA meeting and will be expected to present a talk on their original work at that conference.

  • If the Award Committee judges that none of the nominations merits an award, then no award will be made in that round.

Application Procedure

  • Nominations for the AMMA ECR award are to be made by a nominator that knows the nominee (candidate) and can speak to the quality of their work and contribution to their field of research, relative to opportunity.

  • The nominator must provide a cover letter detailing the reasons for the nomination and how the applicant meets the selection criteria, and attach a full CV with all publications of the nominee.

  • Nominators should seek the approval of the nominee before submitting a nomination.

  • Nominations should be sent to the AMMA Secretary by the date specified in the call for applications.