Researchers With Ties To Chemistry Among National Academy Of Sciences Awardees

Five researchers with ties to the chemical sciences are among several individuals named last week by the National Academy of Sciences for their extraordinary achievements in the physical and life sciences. The winners will receive their awards during NAS’s annual meeting in April.

Catherine G. Dulac, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and Higgins Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology at Harvard University, is the recipient of the $50,000 Pradel Research Award. She is being honored for her work on pheromone signaling in mammals.

W. Carl Lineberger, E. U. Condon Distinguished Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at JILA at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is the recipient of the $15,000 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences. Lineberger is being honored for his work on developing negative ion photoelectron spectroscopy and other tools to study small molecules.

Thomas Dean Pollard, Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology; professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry; and professor of cell biology at Yale University, is the recipient of the $20,000 NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing, presented this year in the field of biochemistry. Pollard is being recognized for his many review articles describing the molecular mechanisms of the protein actin in cell motility and cell division.

Bruce D. Roth, senior vice president of small-molecule drug discovery at Genentech, is the recipient of the $20,000 NAS Award for Chemistry in Service to Society. Roth is being honored for his contributions to discovering the blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin, better known as Lipitor.

Jonathan Weissman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco, is the recipient of the inaugural NAS Award for Scientific Discovery, presented this year in the field of chemistry, biochemistry, or biophysics. Weissman is being honored for his work on ribosome profiling, a technique that uses specialized messenger RNA sequencing to determine which mRNAs are being actively translated. He will receive a $50,000 cash prize and $50,000 to support his research.