2020 Vilcek Foundation Prizes The Vilcek Foundation presents theVilcek Prize Xiaowei Zhuang in Biomedical Science recipientsVilcek Prizes Kıvanç Birsoy for Creative Promise Viviana Gradinaru of inthe Biomedical Science Martin Jonikas Vilcek Prize Edwidge Danticat 2020 Vilcekin Literature 3 Vilcek Prizes Yaa Gyasi Foundationfor Creative Promise Valeria Luiselli in Literature Jenny Xie PrizesVilcek Prize for Excellence Robert A. Katzmann in Administration of Justice 6 The Vilcek Foundation Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise 6 The Vilcek Foundation in Literature Prizes Contents 34 Yaa Gyasi Vilcek Prize 38 Valeria Luiselli in Biomedical Science 42 Jenny Xie 8 Xiaowei Zhuang 46 Juries in Literature Vilcek Prizes 47 Previous Prizewinners for Creative Promise in the Arts in Biomedical Science and Humanities 14 Kıvanç Birsoy Vilcek Prize 18 Viviana Gradinaru for Excellence 22 Martin Jonikas in Administration of Justice 26 Juries in Biomedical Science 48 Robert A. Katzmann 27 Previous Prizewinners Presenters in Biomedical Science 52 Dan R. Littman Vilcek Prize 53 Dinaw Mengestu in Literature 54 David Miliband 28 Edwidge Danticat 55 Board of Directors 55 Staff 56 Credits The Vilcek Foundation Left: Jan and Marica Vilcek Right: The Vilcek Foundation The Vilcek Foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation, to honor the contributions of immigrants to the United States and to foster appreciation of the arts and sciences, was inspired by the couple’s respective careers in biomedical science The Vilcek Foundation Prizes and art history, as well as their personal experiences and appreciation for the opportunities The Vilcek Foundation Prizes were 6 they received as newcomers to created to spotlight and support 7 this country. the immigrant contributions that are invaluable to the United States. Each year, the Vilcek Prizes honor immigrants with records of major accomplishment in the biomedical sciences or the arts and humanities, while the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise commend young foreign-born professionals in the same fields. The Vilcek Prize for Excellence is awarded to an immigrant who has demonstrated unparalleled achievements in their field, or to an advocate who has championed immigrant causes. SYMBOL Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science XIAOWEI CHINAZHUANG TEXT BOX 8 XIAOWEI9 Xiaowei Zhuang’s approach to science is including memberships in the U.S. National resolutely visual. Over a distinguished career, Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Zhuang, a professor at Harvard University Sciences, and European Molecular Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Organization, and a 2019 Breakthrough Prize in ZHUANG Investigator, has fashioned ingenious methods Life Sciences. of imaging to observe the fretwork and CHINA interplay of molecules in cells. Marked by Zhuang’s fascination with science was inspired unerring scientific instincts and a refined by the academic environment in which she aesthetic sensibility, her work in the fields of was raised. She was born in China’s Jiangsu super-resolution fluorescence microscopy province to a physicist father and a mechanical and genome-scale imaging is the apotheosis engineer mother, both university professors. of the adage “show, don’t tell.” Zhuang has Even before she began elementary school, her unveiled fine structures in animal cells previously father spotted her scientific precocity. At the unknown to science as well as profound age of 6, she correctly guessed the physical insights into animal physiology and behavior. forces acting on a cup of water resting on Her work has earned her coveted honors, a table. Later, as it became clear that physics was her calling, her father urged her to move The hurdle, named diffraction barrier, had long to the United States after she graduated stymied researchers’ efforts to visualize the with a bachelor’s degree in physics from the hidden world of cells at high resolution. It stems University of Science and Technology of China. from the inability to focus light on a spot small enough to distinguish objects spaced less than In 1991, Zhuang enrolled for a doctorate at the 200 nanometers apart, capping the lateral University of California, Berkeley. With physicist resolution of conventional light microscopes Yuen-Ron Shen, an inspiring mentor, Zhuang at that limit. But many molecules in living worked on the physics of interfaces using cells are no more than a few nanometers in nonlinear optics, publishing studies with size, and observing interactions between implications for improving liquid crystal displays molecules meant that approaches to surpass in electronic devices. But she soon forsook her the diffraction barrier had to be invented. These pursuit of pure physics. In 1997, supported by approaches came to be known by the umbrella a postdoctoral fellowship, Zhuang joined the term “super-resolution imaging.” lab of Stanford University physicist Steven Chu, who won a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics Zhuang developed one of the most widely used that year for his work on using lasers to explore super-resolution imaging methods. Dubbed the physics of atoms. STORM, or stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy, the approach harnessed fluorescent Zhuang’s apprenticeship with Chu marks a molecules that can be switched on and off 10 pivotal stage in her career. Chu encouraged using light. Her lab discovered such light- 11 her to follow her instincts but never to lose sight switchable dyes, and Zhuang used low light of the long view. Heeding his advice, Zhuang levels to activate no more than a fraction of pivoted to biophysics, a field that combines the dye molecules labeling the target structure the profundity of physics with the immediacy in cells, such that the images of individual of biology. In Chu’s lab, Zhuang marshaled her dye molecules could be separated and the expertise in physics to visualize the workings molecules’ positions determined. She then of individual molecules. She used a technique repeated this sparse sampling to generate a called single molecule fluorescence resonance complete image that covered all of the target. energy transfer to observe the structure and A year later, Zhuang extended the boost in dynamics of RNA enzymes, which play life- resolution to the third dimension. She acquired sustaining roles in cells. meticulously detailed images of cellular structures, such as clathrin-coated pits, which The work whetted her appetite for biological are membrane cavities that serve to ferry cargo, imaging, and when she accepted an assistant and microtubules, which are filamentous tubes professorship at Harvard University in 2001, that act as highways in cells. she chose to focus on imaging. At Harvard, she set to work on a technical hurdle facing light microscopy, which was a method of choice since the late 17th century to peer Genome-scale RNA imaging of individual cells by multiplex error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH). inside living cells. 10,050 genes are imaged here and different genes are denoted by different colors. XIE “When I checked to Before long, Zhuang showed that STORM could spectrin, which serves as a spacer connecting The ultimate goal of the Human Cell Atlas unearth novel insights into structures hidden the actin rings. She and others later showed project is to uncover novel insights into in cells. Zhuang revealed a backbone structure that this structure also exists in dendrites, human biology, and Zhuang has already made see who else had in axons, which are the main strands of brain which are branching protrusions of neurons. inroads toward that goal. Working with Harvard cells through which electrical signals travel. Zhuang dubbed this backbone “membrane- colleague Catherine Dulac, Zhuang used won the prize, In this backbone, actin rings were wrapped associated periodic skeleton,” which provides MERFISH and single-cell RNA sequencing around the shafts of axons, each ring separated elasticity and stability to the axons as well as to identify more than 70 distinct subtypes of from the next by 180–190 nm. Such precise a template for organizing signaling proteins neurons in a region of the mouse brain called I was amazed… spacing, Zhuang found, stemmed from and ion channels on the surfaces of brain cells the hypothalamic preoptic region, implicated 180–190 nm-long tetramers of the protein to support the cells’ functions. in sleep, thirst, and social behaviors. Many of these neurons had never been described I realized how many before, and Zhuang’s efforts helped map their molecular identities, spatial organization, and functional links. In the process, a bounty of great immigrant insights emerged on the neuronal basis of mating, parenting, and aggression in mice. scientists there are Collectively, these insights hinted at the possibility of gleaning links between brain physiology and human behavior at an in this country.” unprecedentedly fine scale. 12 13 Working at the forefront of imaging, Zhuang has made stellar contributions to science. Zhuang Zhuang next focused on gene expression as says moving to the United States broadened a proxy for cellular identity. Because different her view, which was pivotal to her success as types of cells in the body carry different a scientist. Her career is a shining example of signature gene expression profiles, visualizing immigration’s role as a cornerstone of the U.S. and quantifying RNA molecules—immediate scientific edifice. “I was truly honored when I products