Accelrys Introduces the Accelrys Science Council Featuring Pioneers Committed to Scientific Excellence and Awareness

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Accelrys, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACCL), a leading provider of scientific innovation lifecycle management software and solutions, today introduced the Accelrys Science Council, furthering the company's commitment to advancing the highest levels of scientific research and innovation across all major scientific industries. The Accelrys Science Council is comprised of the company's most elite thought leaders who will guide the direction and sustain the high standard of company-wide scientific innovation efforts.  Leading the program as Senior Fellows with 53 collective years of experience are Hugues-Olivier Bertrand, Ph.D., Victor Milman, Ph.D. and Justin Neway, Ph.D.

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"The Accelrys Science Council expands the role of Accelrys' top scientists in developing and deploying technology solutions that accelerate products from research to manufacturing," said Accelrys President and CEO Max Carnecchia. "Accelrys' deep scientific heritage and expertise is essential to driving scientific product lifecycle management. With their passion for science, the Accelrys Fellows will play a critical role in transforming the next generation of informatics technology required by our customers." 

Senior Fellows will appoint additional Fellows from among Accelrys' approximately 225 Ph.D. scientists to serve on the Accelrys Science Council.  Accelrys Fellows drive the development and validation of software solutions for the process industries that are critical to scientific innovation. Their insights will serve to influence the development of Accelrys' industry leading portfolio of scientific innovation lifecycle management solutions across the entire new product development cycle.

"Fellows are selected based on their highly regarded published work, presentations, patent achievements, industry thought leadership and significant contributions to Accelrys' scientific advancements," said Bertrand, Ph.D., senior fellow and senior director at Accelrys. "Those appointed have an in-depth knowledge of customer environments, processes and business issues; allowing Accelrys to develop, deliver and support the solutions our customers need."

Hugues-Olivier Bertrand joined Accelrys in 1998 as an application scientist. Currently, as a senior director and senior fellow, Bertrand manages the Life Science Research Pre-Sales group and his main areas of expertise include protein modeling, simulations of macrolecules, virtual screening and structure based drug design. He received his doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from University of Rennes, France. He followed his academic curriculum with a postdoctoral experience focusing his research work on computational structural biology at the Institut de Biologie Physicochimique and Institut Gustave Roussy in Paris. After joining Accelrys, Bertrand started developing structural biology and drug discovery projects on Family 3 GPCRs activated by amino acids. This work, carried out in collaboration with other experts, gave rise to several publications, patents, international seminars and doctoral thesis. Bertrand teaches computational chemistry, comparative modeling and virtual screening at Institut Gustave Roussy and has co-supervised several doctoral theses. He is the author of 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Victor Milman joined Accelrys in 1994 and currently serves as a senior fellow and manager of quantum mechanics and nanotechnology research and development team. He graduated from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and received his doctorate in solid state physics from The Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. His subsequent research at the Institute of Metal Physics in Kiev focused on development of first principles techniques for study of lattice properties of inorganic crystals. This work continued at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, where he was employed as a Research Associate for the SERC Collaborative Computational Project in electronic structure of solids. This activity in the group of Professor Heine and Professor Payne culminated in the public release of CASTEP, a revolutionary code for quantum-mechanical modelling of solids and surfaces. Milman further worked for a year as a visiting research fellow at the DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory, concentrating on applications of CASTEP to physics of semiconductors, from modelling growth processes to study of extended defects. Victor Milman has 150 peer-reviewed publications with the h-index of 29, which reflects both productivity and high scientific impact of his research.  His contributions include numerous conference presentations, co-supervision of doctorate students with University of Cambridge and with University College London, organization of meetings and symposia, regular refereeing of papers for the major journals in physics and chemistry.

Justin Neway, general manager, operations intelligence and senior fellow, joined Accelrys through the 2012 acquisition of Aegis Analytical Corp, which he founded in 1997 and where he also served as vice president and chief science officer. He received his doctorate in biochemistry from University of Illinois studying the regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis using biochemical, enzymology and immunology techniques. Neway brings to Accelrys over 30 years of experience in biotechnology and pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing, and in the application of software solutions to operational issues and quality compliance in biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Prior to founding Aegis, he was with Wyeth Biosciences, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Baxter Hemoglobin Therapeutics, where he held positions of increasing responsibility.  Neway's additional contributions to the field include managing the first CMC regulatory filing for IL-2, editing a reference book on Process Development of Industrial Organisms, publishing several refereed journal articles, being an inventor on several issued patents, chairing and delivering numerous conference presentations, and publishing numerous thought leadership articles.

Throughout the year, the Accelrys Science Council will share research, develop mentorship and guidance and highlight key advancements in Accelrys science solutions.

Link to Accelrys' Published Research: http://accelrys.com/innovation/published-research/

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About Accelrys, Inc.
Accelrys (NASDAQ:  ACCL), a leading provider of scientific innovation lifecycle management software, supports industries and organizations that rely on scientific innovation to differentiate themselves. The industry-leading Accelrys Enterprise Platform provides a broad, flexible scientific foundation optimized to integrate the diversity of science, experimental processes and information requirements across the research, development, QA/QC and manufacturing phases of product development. Accelrys offers capabilities in scientific data management, modeling and simulation, research informatics, laboratory informatics, enterprise quality management, environmental health & safety and operations intelligence for customers in science-driven industries. Using Accelrys technology, scientific innovators can access, organize, analyse and share data in unprecedented ways across the research, laboratory and manufacturing continuum, ultimately enhancing innovation, improving productivity and compliance, reducing costs and accelerating product development from research to manufacturing.

Accelrys solutions are used by more than 2,000 customers in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, energy, chemicals, aerospace, consumer packaged goods and industrial products industries. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Accelrys employs approximately 225 full-time PhD scientists. For more information about Accelrys, visit www.accelrys.com.

SOURCE Accelrys, Inc.