Technical Program

A call for abstracts will be announced in Oct 2024. The final technical program will be announced Spring 2025. 

If you are interested in organizing a symposia please contact Steve Silverman (steven.silverman@merck.com) and submit the proposal form for MARM 2025.

Please download the Google Doc to edit and send.

We are honored to host these chemists at MARM 2025. Updated schedule of events to come. 

Morten Meldal is a distinguished Danish chemist known for his pioneering work in click chemistry, particularly his development of the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction. For this work, Meldal was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022, sharing the honor with Carolyn Bertozzi and Barry Sharpless. He also received the 2009 American Chemical Society Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in peptide chemistry, and the 2011 Vincent du Vigneaud Award of the American Peptide Society. Meldal has significantly influenced the fields of peptide synthesis and combinatorial chemistry, with his research facilitating advancements in pharmaceuticals and materials science. He has held various academic positions, including leading the research synthesis group at Carlsberg Laboratory and the Center for Evolutionary Chemical Biology at University of Copenhagen since 2011. 

Phaedria Marie St. Hilaire is a renowned chemist and business leader with over two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. She has held leadership roles at Carlsberg Laboratory and Novo Nordisk, where she was a Director and Senior Project Manager. A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, Dr. St. Hilaire co-founded ProWoC (Professional Women of Colour Network) in Denmark. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Duke University, a business degree from Copenhagen Business School, and executive coaching credentials from Henley Business School. Currently, she works as a DEI Consultant and Public Speaker and also serves as an angel investor, supporting diverse startups and mentoring professionals​.

Rebecca Ruck is an Associate Vice President in the Process Research & Development organization at Merck, where she leads the Enabling Technologies group. She has played a pivotal role in innovating chemical processes to manufacture drug candidates efficiently and sustainably. Dr. Ruck earned her BS at Princeton University, her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University, and completed NIH-funded post-doctoral research at UC Berkeley. An advocate for diversity in science, she co-founded the WCC Merck Research Award to support third and fourth year female graduate students in chemistry, as well as the annual Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry conference, and has been recognized with several awards including the ACS Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences​.