The Krill Prize for 2018 prize has been awarded to Dr. Anat Milo from the Department of Chemistry. Initiated in 2005 by the Krill family, five prizes of $10,000 each are awarded annually in life sciences, medicine, agriculture, engineering and exact sciences. Selection is made by the Wolf Foundation Scholarships Committee on the basis of an untenured candidate's excellence and the importance of his or her research field.
The Wolf Foundation was established in Israel in 1975 by inventor, diplomat and philanthropist Dr. Ricardo Wolf, "to promote science and art for the benefit of mankind."
Dr. Anat Milo | Photo by: Cristiane Storck Schwalm
Dr. Milo's research group combines statistical, computational and experimental strategies, in an attempt to develop new chemical reactions. The goal of the research program is tracing the source of chemical phenomena, while using accompanying quantifying experiments and analyzing data-mining research and response mechanisms for predicting chemical results.
These techniques are used for research and the development of responses which are currently less effective or cannot be carried out. With them, we can develop in an informed way processes which aim to reduce the amount of waste given off in chemical experiments and at the same time performing efficient responses in terms of the utilization of the molecular components that respond positively.
During her postdoctoral work at the University of Utah, she took part in the development of a general method for quantifying and forecasting effective catalysts. As part of this study, she developed a breakthrough method in the subject of catalysis for predicting response efficiency, based on a new index to coordinate changes in the structure of the catalyst. This index enables identification of reaction mechanisms and effective response conditions, also in cases which had been considered impossible until now.
During the three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah, Dr. Milo published two articles as lead author in the leading and influential journals Science and Nature.
