2005 Biot Awards Presented

Three scientists received awards from the American Chemical Society's Biochemical Technology Division (BIOT) in March at the society's spring national meeting in San Diego.

Erik J. Fernandez received the 2005 James M. Van Lanen Distinguished Service Award, consisting of a plaque and given out for outstanding contributions to BIOT. Fernandez, an associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, was cited for his programming leadership in the division. He served as long-range programming coordinator for BIOT from 2001 to 2005 and was session cochair for BIOT at both the San Diego meeting and the 2003 ACS national meeting in New Orleans.

The winner of the 2005 David Perlman Memorial Lectureship is Paul R. Schimmel, Ernest & Jean Hahn Professor of Molecular Biology & Chemistry at the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, part of Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, Calif. The award is sponsored by Genzyme and has been given out since 1985 to honor the contributions of the late University of Wisconsin professor David Perlman.

Schimmel was cited for his important contributions in the field of human genetics and genomics, as well as for his biotechnology entrepreneurship. In particular, he has worked extensively with aminoacyl tRNA synthetases and other components of basic genetic coding. He also developed the concepts of ESTs (expressed sequence tags) and shotgun sequencing, both key developments leading to the creation of the Human Genome Project.

Wei-Shou Hu, Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the department of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, received the 2005 Marvin J. Johnson Award. Sponsored by Pfizer and given since 1978, the prize recognizes outstanding research contributions to microbial and biochemical technology; it provides travel expenses to the awards presentation, where the winner is expected to give an address on his or her research. Hu was cited for his contributions to animal-cell biotechnology, liver tissue engineering, and metabolic engineering for antibiotic production.