MIKIW History

The first Medicinal Chemistry Meeting-in-Miniature was organized by faculty from the Departments of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at the Universities of Minnesota, Illinois at Chicago, Kansas, Iowa in 1963. Since then, the Departments of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at these universities have alternately hosted the MIKI meeting. In 2018, the School of Pharmacy at University of Wisconsin-Madison joined the original MIKI lineup (hence, MIKIW).

MIKIW is the largest and longest-running regional medicinal chemistry conference in the United States. It is organized and led entirely by graduate students. The meeting assembles over 200 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty members annually for a two-day, multidisciplinary conference that immerses students in all aspects of medicinal chemistry and provides a forum in which they present their research as symposium talks and poster sessions.

The atmosphere is intentionally geared to promote scientific discussion and exchange of ideas that encompasses medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, chemical synthesis, bioanalytical chemistry, chemical biology, and drug metabolism. Further, graduate students are pooled from different schools and experience levels to develop their networking and communication skills, while increasing their breadth of knowledge in the diverse field of medicinal chemistry. The conference features a keynote lecture from a recognized leader in the field. Previous keynote speakers represent some of the most accomplished scientists, including two Nobel laureates and members of the National Academy of Sciences. A list of previous keynote speakers can be found here. This year, we are pleased to announce that Dr. Emma Parmee, Global Head of Discovery Sciences at the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, will be our featured speaker.