On   the   occasion   of   the   first   International   Conference   on   Noncovalent   Interactions   (ICNI-I) which was held in Lisbon in 2019, its International Advisory Board (IAB) has formally agreed on a proposal, from the Chairs of the Conference (Prof. Armando J. L. Pombeiro and Dr. Kamran T. Mahmudov), for the establishment of a prize, named the van der Waals Prize, to distinguish scientists of high scientific merit who have contributed in an outstanding way to the development of the field of Noncovalent Interactions in Science.

The van der Waals Prize was already awarded for the first time on the occasion of the ICNI-I(2019) to Prof. Pavel Hobza.

At ICNI-I, the IAB members further agreed that this Prize should distinguish a senior and a young (not older than 45 years) scientist in alternating years.

The van der Waals Prize for the young (for the first time) and senior scientists were awarded by IAB members to Prof. Alexander Tkatchenko and Prof. Giuseppe Resnati in 2020 and 2021, respectively, and presented during the ICNI-II (Strasbourg, 2022).

The prizes for the young (2022) and senior scientists (2023) have already been awarded by IAB members to Prof. Hongbo Zeng and Prof. Gautam R. Desiraju.  Both these distinctions will be presented to the awardees during the ICNI-III (Belgrade, June 2024).

Award Committee (International Advisory Board of ICNI)

Prof. Elangannan Arunan - Indian Institute of Science, India

Prof. Dario Braga - University of Bologna, Italy

Prof. Pierre Braunstein - University of Strasbourg, France

Prof. Antonio Caballero -Universidad de Murcia, Spain

Prof. Jean-François Carpentier - CNRS-Université de Rennes 1, France

Prof. Scott L. Cockroft - University of Edinburgh, UK

Prof. Debbie C. Crans - Colorado State University, USA

Prof. Jean-Pierre Djukic - University of Strasbourg, France

Prof. M. Teresa Duarte - University of Lisbon, Portugal

Prof. Catharine Esterhuysen - Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Prof. Antonio Frontera - Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain

Prof. Philip A. Gale - University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Prof. Michael K. Gilson - University of California San Diego, USA

Prof. Fabrizia Grepioni - University of Bologna, Italy

Prof. M. Fátima C. Guedes da Silva - University of Lisbon, Portugal

Prof. Akira Harada - Osaka University, Japan

Prof. Matti Haukka - University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Prof. Pavel Hobza - Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic

Prof. Feihe Huang - Zhejiang University, China

Prof. Wei Jun Jin - Beijing Normal University, China

Prof. Susumu Kitagawa - Kyoto University, Japan,

Dr. Maximilian N. Kopylovich - University of Lisbon, Portugal

Prof. Vadim Yu. Kukushkin - Saint Petersburg State University, Russian Federation

Prof. Yu Liu - Nankai University, China

Prof. Abel M. Maharramov - Baku State University, Azerbaijan

Dr. Kamran T. Mahmudov - University of Lisbon, Portugal, International Secretary of the ICNI

Prof. Stefan Matile - University of Geneva, Switzerland

Prof. Pierangelo Metrangolo - Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Prof. Marta E. G. Mosquera - Universidad de Alcala, Spain

Prof. Djamaladdin G. Musaev - Emory University, USA

Dr. Dana Nachtigallova - Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic

Prof. G. Narahari Sastry - CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, India

Prof. Werner M. Nau - Jacobs University Bremen, Germany

Prof. Armando J. L. Pombeiro - University of Lisbon, Portugal

Prof. Giuseppe Resnati - Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Prof. Steve Scheiner - Utah State University, USA

Prof. Hans-Jörg Schneider - Organische Chemie der Universität des Saarlandes, Germany

Prof. Elena S. Shubina - Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation

Prof. Anthony Stone - University of Cambridge, UK

Prof. F. Dean Toste - University of California, USA

Prof. Leyong Wang - Nanjing University, China

Prof. Andrew S. Weller - University of York, UK

Prof. Steven E. Wheeler - University of Georgia, USA

Prof. Snežana D. Zarić - University of Belgrade, Serbia