Weinheim, Germany. March 6th, 2012 – Dr. Vera Köster, Website & Managing Editor, Wiley-VCH, is the recipient of this year's prize of the Society of German Chemists (GDCh) for journalists and writers. In its award statement, the GDCh honoured her "extremely dedicated and successful journalistic, pioneering work" in establishing, developing and running the website ChemistryViews.org and its integrated magazine ChemViews.
The information service for chemists and other scientists was developed by Wiley-VCH, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons. The integrated magazine ChemViews is supported by ChemPubSoc Europe, a publishing network of 16 European chemical societies.
Since the launch of the site in May 2010 more than 5,000 contributions have been posted, including videos, blogs and interviews. The number of visits to the website has increased from approximately 70,000 in 2010 to around 325,000 in 2011.
The prize was awarded to Dr. Köster at an award ceremony during a conference of chemistry faculty members in Freiburg last night. The conference was hosted by the Working Group of German University Professors in Chemistry (ADUC). The president of the GDCh, Professor Barbara Albert, presented the award.
"The aim of ChemistryViews.org is to provide a new way of offering increased worldwide visibility for authors, for scientific societies and for chemistry," said Dr. Eva Wille, Vice President & Executive Director, Wiley-VCH. "Dr. Köster has been responsible for the project since its inception and we are extremely proud that her dedication to this goal has been recognised and rewarded by the GDCh, and join them in congratulating her achievements."