This just in from the St Louis Award Banquet

The 2016 St. Louis Award Banquet was held on October 15 at the Glen Echo Country Club. There were 50 in attendance including 12 members of the research group of the honoree, Professor Liviu Mirica of Washington University. Professor Mirica was accompanied by his wife Liudmila Mirica, a financial manager at Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine, and their four-year-old son, Max.

Section Chair Joe Ackermann opened the formal proceedings by welcoming those in attendance and telling some very long jokes, which seemed to require insider knowledge. He went on to welcome everyone to the 46th S Louis Award Banquet, described some of the recent activities and successes of the Section. He then acknowledged the presence of the honoree, Dr Mirica, and his family, along with the symposium speakers, section officers present, and former St Louis Award winners. Of interest was that the latter spanned 40 years from Prof Jake Schaefer, who was at Monsanto when he won the award in 1977 to Prof Sophia Hayes, from Washington University, who won the award in 2015. Special mention was made of Dr William Abraham from Monsanto: the company helped establish the award and has provided excellent support over the years. Those present then consumed an excellent meal which included an entrée of tenderloin Oscar: beef tenderloin topped with crabmeat, asparagus and a béarnaise sauce.

After dinner Dr Ackerman introduced William Buhro, Washington University Chemistry Department chair, who in turn introduced Dr Mirica, the winner of the 2016 St Louis Award. Dr Mirica was presented with a plaque and a check for $1,500, and he made a presentation titled Metals on the Brain. The talk described his work on the interaction of transition metal ions involving copper, iron, and zinc with Aβ peptides and the study of the role of these metal ions in Aβ oligomerization and amyloid plaque which is considered to be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease. The presentation was general and quite brief and was able to hold the attention of all those present. A very successful evening was enjoyed by all.

Update: our esteemed semi-official event photographer, Vic Lewchenko, has posted his photo stream for this event on Flickr (in case you want to see even more of the happening).