On the occasion of the first International Conference on Noncovalent Interactions (ICNI-I) in Lisbon in 2019, its International Advisory Board (IAB) has formally agreed on a proposal, from the Chairs of the Conference, 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. Thus, the van der Waals Prize winners list is as follows:
√ Prof. Pavel Hobza (2019, senior)
√ Prof. Alexander Tkatchenko (2020, young)
√ Prof. Giuseppe Resnati (2021, senior)
√ Prof. Hongbo Zeng (2022, young)
√ Prof. Gautam R. Desiraju (2023, senior)
√ Prof. Scott L. Cockroft (2024, young)
√ Prof. Stefan Grimme (2025, senior)
The van der Waals Prize for the young (2024) and senior (2025) scientists will be presented to the awardees during the ICNI-IV.
