15 Awards of Excellence
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Francois Jacob Memorial
RETROSPECTIVE RETROSPECTIVE Francois Jacob memorial Arthur B. Pardee1 Department of Adult Oncology, Dana-Farber Institute, Boston, MA 02115 Dr. Francois Jacob is one of a handful of the DNA would integrate into the bacterial chro- 20th century’smostdistinguishedlifescien- mosome and remain dormant or, at other tists. His research with Dr. Jacques Monod, times, would kill the cell. like that of Watson and Crick, provided the Jacob’s next major contribution, in collab- foundations for understanding mechanisms oration with Dr. Jacques Monod, was to in- of genetic regulation of life processes such vestigate how a gene is regulated. Remark- as cell differentiation and defects in diseases. ably, native E. coli synthesize β-galactosidase Jacob joined the College de France in 1964 only when lactose is available. Some mutated and shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology bacteria can make the enzyme in the absence or Medicine 1965 with Jacques Monod of inducer. Monod’s initial idea was that and Andre Lwoff. He was elected to the these constitutive bacteria activate the gene National Academy of Sciences (NAS) USA by synthesizing an intracellular lactose-like in 1969. inducer molecule. Jacob was born in 1920 in a French Jewish To investigate this model, interrupted family; his grandfather was a four-star gen- mating was applied to bring the β-galactosi- eral. He began to study medicine before dase gene of a donor bacterium into a consti- World War II, in which he served as a mil- tutive receptor. According to the induction itary officer in the Free French Army and was model, the mated cell should produce en- badly wounded in an air raid. -
Thomas Jentsch Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut Für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Robert-Rössle-Str
Thomas Jentsch Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Robert-Rössle-Str. 10 D-13125 Berlin Phone: +49 (0)30 94062961 Email: jentsch(at)fmp-berlin.de Curriculum vitae Since 2009 Deputy director, FMP, Berlin Since 2006 Head, Department of Physiology and Pathology of Ion Transport, FMP/MDC, Berlin Since 2006 Full professor (W3), Charité, Berlin 2001 – 2003 Director, Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (ZMNH), Hamburg 1995 – 1998 Director, Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (ZMNH), Hamburg 1993 – 2006 Full professor (C4), Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (ZMNH), Hamburg 1991 Venia legendi (Habilitation) in Cell Biochemistry, Universität Hamburg 1988 – 1993 Research group leader, Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (ZMNH), Hamburg 1986 – 1988 Postdoctoral fellow, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, US 1984 MD (Dr. med.), Freie Universität Berlin 1982 PhD in Physics, Fritz-Haber-Institute, Max Planck Society (MPG), Berlin 1981 – 1985 Staff scientist, Department for Clinical Physiology, Freie Universität Berlin 1972 – 1980 Studies in Medicine and studies in Physics, Freie Universität Berlin Research fields Our group is active in the field of physiology and pathology of ion transport with the major areas: § Cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration, epilepsy, sensory biology § Cell biology and (patho) physiology of cell volume regulation and related signaling in the CNS § Mouse models § Intracellular trafficking, -
Quiet Debut'' of the Double Helix: a Bibliometric and Methodological
Journal of the History of Biology Ó Springer 2009 DOI 10.1007/s10739-009-9183-2 Revisiting the ‘‘Quiet Debut’’ of the Double Helix: A Bibliometric and Methodological note on the ‘‘Impact’’ of Scientific Publications YVES GINGRAS De´partement d’histoire Universite´ du Que´bec a` Montre´al C.P. 8888, Suc. Centre-Ville Montreal, QC H3C-3P8 Canada E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. The object of this paper is two-fold: first, to show that contrary to what seem to have become a widely accepted view among historians of biology, the famous 1953 first Nature paper of Watson and Crick on the structure of DNA was widely cited – as compared to the average paper of the time – on a continuous basis from the very year of its publication and over the period 1953–1970 and that the citations came from a wide array of scientific journals. A systematic analysis of the bibliometric data thus shows that Watson’s and Crick’s paper did in fact have immediate and long term impact if we define ‘‘impact’’ in terms of comparative citations with other papers of the time. In this precise sense it did not fall into ‘‘relative oblivion’’ in the scientific community. The second aim of this paper is to show, using the case of the reception of the Watson–Crick and Jacob–Monod papers as concrete examples, how large scale bibliometric data can be used in a sophisticated manner to provide information about the dynamic of the scientific field as a whole instead of limiting the analysis to a few major actors and generalizing the result to the whole community without further ado. -
Dr. Gerald Haug Version: February 2020
Curriculum Vitae Prof. (ETHZ)* Dr. Gerald Haug Version: February 2020 Name: Gerald H. Haug Born: 14 April 1968 in Karlsruhe, Germany Major Scientific Interests: Paleoclimatology, Marine Geology, Paleoceanography, Climate and Societies Gerald Haug is a paleoclimatologist, marine geologist and paleoceanographer. He studies the development of the Earth climate over thousands to millions of years. He analyses sediment cores from the sea floor and lakes, amongst several other climate archives. The chemical composition of the different sediment layers provides clues to the prevailing climatic conditions at the time of deposition. This allows quantitative reconstructions of past climate conditions and the underlying processes in the ocean, atmosphere and climate system. Academic and Professional Career since 2020 President of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – German National Academy of Sciences, Halle (Saale) since 2015 Ordinary Professor for Climate Geochemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland since 2015 Director, Dept. Climate Geochemistry, Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany 2007 - 2015 Ordinary Professor for Climate Geology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland 2003 - 2007 Professor (C4), University of Potsdam and Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam (GFZ), Germany 2002 Habilitation in Geosciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland 2000 - 2002 Oberassistent, ETH Zurich, Switzerland 1998 - 1999 Research Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften -
Pavel Levkin Is Granted Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize
Press Release No. 034 | or | April 2, 2015 Pavel Levkin Is Granted Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize Highest Distinction in Germany for Young Researchers – Polymer Chemist Develops Novel Materials for Molecular Cell Biology Monika Landgraf Chief Press Officer Kaiserstraße 12 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany Phone: +49 721 608-47414 Fax: +49 721 608-43658 E-mail: [email protected] Pavel Levkin (Photo: Markus Breig/KIT) The chemist Dr. Pavel Levkin of Karlsruhe Institute of Technol- ogy (KIT) is granted the 2015 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The prize is considered the highest distinction for young researchers in Germany. Sci- entific work of Pavel Levkin focuses on the investigation of cell-surface interactions, the development of biofunctional ma- terials and super-water-repellent surfaces as well as on nano- particles for specific medicine and gene transport. A major sci- entific success of Levkin was the synthesis of lipid-like mole- cules for gene modification of cells. “Polymer chemistry develops new synthesis methods for innovative materials with so far unreached properties and has a high potential for future use,” KIT President Professor Holger Hanselka explains. “An important application is molecular cell biology. Based on his excellent understanding of polymer chemistry and biology, Pavel Levkin made major contributions. I am extraordinarily happy that this great achievement is now honored by the important Heinz Maier- Leibnitz Prize.” Page 1 / 3 KIT – University of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg and National Research Center of the Helmholtz Association www.kit.edu Press Release No. 034 | or | April 2, 2015 The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize is granted annually by the DFG to young scientists for outstanding achievements. -
MCDB 5220 Methods and Logics April 21 2015 Marcelo Bassalo
Cracking the Genetic Code MCDB 5220 Methods and Logics April 21 2015 Marcelo Bassalo The DNA Saga… so far Important contributions for cracking the genetic code: • The “transforming principle” (1928) Frederick Griffith The DNA Saga… so far Important contributions for cracking the genetic code: • The “transforming principle” (1928) • The nature of the transforming principle: DNA (1944 - 1952) Oswald Avery Alfred Hershey Martha Chase The DNA Saga… so far Important contributions for cracking the genetic code: • The “transforming principle” (1928) • The nature of the transforming principle: DNA (1944 - 1952) • X-ray diffraction and the structure of proteins (1951) Linus Carl Pauling The DNA Saga… so far Important contributions for cracking the genetic code: • The “transforming principle” (1928) • The nature of the transforming principle: DNA (1944 - 1952) • X-ray diffraction and the structure of proteins (1951) • The structure of DNA (1953) James Watson and Francis Crick The DNA Saga… so far Important contributions for cracking the genetic code: • The “transforming principle” (1928) • The nature of the transforming principle: DNA (1944 - 1952) • X-ray diffraction and the structure of proteins (1951) • The structure of DNA (1953) How is DNA (4 nucleotides) the genetic material while proteins (20 amino acids) are the building blocks? ? DNA Protein ? The Coding Craze ? DNA Protein What was already known? • DNA resides inside the nucleus - DNA is not the carrier • Protein synthesis occur in the cytoplasm through ribosomes {• Only RNA is associated with ribosomes (no DNA) - rRNA is not the carrier { • Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) was a homogeneous population The “messenger RNA” hypothesis François Jacob Jacques Monod The Coding Craze ? DNA RNA Protein RNA Tie Club Table from Wikipedia The Coding Craze Who won the race Marshall Nirenberg J. -
Curriculum Vitae Professor Dr. F. Ulrich Hartl
Curriculum Vitae Professor Dr. F. Ulrich Hartl Name: F. Ulrich Hartl Born: 10 March 1957 Academic and Professional Career 2002 Managing Director of the Max‐Planck‐Institut fuer Biochemie, Germany since 1997 Director at the Max‐Planck‐Institut fuer Biochemie, Martinsried, Germany 1994 ‐ 1997 Associate Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute 1993 ‐ 1997 Member (with tenure), Program in Cellular Biochemistry and Biophysics, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, Professor of Cell Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York, USA 1991 ‐ 1992 Associate Member, Program in Cellular Biochemistry & Biophysics, Sloan‐Kettering Institute, New York, Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York, USA 1990 ‐ 1991 “Akademischer Rat” at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry, University of Munich, Germany 1990 Dr. Med. Habil., University of Munich, Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Germany; Chair of Prof. W. Neupert. Title: Topogenesis of Mitochondrial Proteins: Mechanisms of Sorting and Assembly of Proteins into the Mitochondrial Subcompartments 1989 ‐ 1990 Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Prof. W. Wickner, University of California at Los Angeles, USA; Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) 1987 ‐ 1989 Group leader, Institute of Physiological Chemistry, University of Munich, Germany Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina www.leopoldina.org 1 1985 ‐ 1986 Postdoctoral Fellow in the -
The Eighth Day of Creation”: Looking Back Across 40 Years to the Birth of Molecular Biology and the Roots of Modern Cell Biology
“The Eighth Day of Creation”: looking back across 40 years to the birth of molecular biology and the roots of modern cell biology Mark Peifer1 1 Department of Biology and Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#3280, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280, USA * To whom correspondence should be addressed Email: [email protected] Phone: (919) 962-2272 1 Forty years ago, Horace Judson’s “The Eight Day of Creation” was published, a book vividly recounting the foundations of modern biology, the molecular biology revolution. This book inspired many in my generation. The anniversary provides a chance for a new generation to take a look back, to see how science has changed and hasn’t changed. Many central players in the book, including Sydney Brenner, Seymour Benzer and Francois Jacob, would go on to be among the founders of modern cell, developmental, and neurobiology. These players come alive via their own words, as complex individuals, both heroes and anti-heroes. The technologies and experimental approaches they pioneered, ranging from cell fractionation to immunoprecipitation to structural biology, and the multidisciplinary approaches they took continue to power and inspire our work today. In the process, Judson brings out of the shadows the central roles played by women in many of the era’s discoveries. He provides us with a vision of how science and scientists have changed, of how many things about our endeavor never change, and how some new ideas are perhaps not as new as we’d like to think. 2 In 1979 Horace Judson completed a ten-year project about cell and molecular biology’s foundations, unveiling “The Eighth Day of Creation”, a book I view as one of the most masterful evocations of a scientific revolution (Judson, 1979). -
Hausdorff Chair Peter Scholze Receives the Leibniz Prize December 10, 2015
HCM 1/2016 HAUSDORFF SPECIALS Hausdorff Chair Peter Scholze receives the Leibniz Prize December 10, 2015 Prof. Dr. Peter Scholze from the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics has been awarded the prestigious Leibniz Price 2015 for his outstanding research achievements. The prize comes with a grant of up to 2.5 million euro, which provides the awardess with great freedom in their research. The mathematician from Bonn is the youngest laureate since the establishment of the prize in 1985. With this prize the DFG appreciates Scholze’s research in the field of arithmetic and algebraic geometry. He is widely colleague Gerd Faltings, who recently received the Shaw recognized for his work on the Langland conjectures. In Prize. Also, Scholze developed new geometric interpreta- 1967, Robert P. Langlands postulated a possible connection tions for spaces that have been first described by his docto- between several research fields. He assumed that this link ral supervisor Michael Rapoport. could help to “translate” several unsolved problems from one field to another in order to solve them there. As a result Peter Scholze is presumably the youngest person to hold a a set of theories about these possible connections were W3-professorhip in Germany and has already established developed, which are now known as the “The Langlands himself as a big name in mathematics. Despite his young Program”. Mathematici- age he has already earned numerous prestigious awards. ans all over the world are In 2015 alone, he already received the Prix Fermat, the working on proving these Ostrowski Prize, the AMS Cole Prize in Algebra and the Conjectures. -
In 1953 in England James Watson and Francis Crick Discovered the Structure of DNA in the Now-Famous Scientific Narrative Known As the “Race Towards the Double Helix”
THE NARRATIVES OF SCIENCE: LITERARY THEORY AND DISCOVERY IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY PRIYA VENKATESAN In 1953 in England James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in the now-famous scientific narrative known as the “race towards the double helix”. Meanwhile in France, Roland Barthes published his first book, Writing Degree Zero, on literary theory, which became the intellectual precursor for the new human sciences that were developing based on Saussurean linguistics. The discovery by Watson and Crick of the double helix marked a definitive turning point in the development of the life sciences, paving the way for the articulation of the genetic code and the emergence of molecular biology. The publication by Barthes was no less significant, since it served as an exemplar for elucidating how literary narratives are structured and for formulating how textual material is constructed. As Françoise Dosse notes, Writing Degree Zero “received unanimous acclaim and quickly became a symptom of new literary demands, a break with tradition”.1 Both the work of Roland Barthes and Watson and Crick served as paradigms in their respective fields. Semiotics, the field of textual analysis as developed by Barthes in Writing Degree Zero, offered a new direction in the structuring of narrative whereby each distinct unit in a story formed a “code” or “isotopy” that categorizes the formal elements of the story. The historical concurrence of the discovery of the double helix and the publication of Writing Degree Zero may be mere coincidence, but this essay is an exploration of the intellectual influence that both events may have had on each other, since both the discovery of the double helix and Barthes’ publication gave expression to the new forms of knowledge 1 Françoise Dosse, History of Structuralism: The Rising Sign, 1945-1966, trans. -
Mathematics People
people.qxp 4/27/98 3:28 PM Page 1308 Mathematics People as a consultant to numerous high technology firms in Ger- Grötschel Receives Leibniz many and other countries. Prize Grötschel was born in 1948 in Germany. He received his bachelor’s (1971) and master’s (1973) degrees in mathe- Martin Grötschel matics from the University of Bochum. In 1977, he re- has received the 1995 ceived his Ph.D. in economics and in 1981 his habilitation Gottfried Wilhelm in operations research from the University of Bonn. He was Leibniz Prize of the a scientific assistant in Bonn from 1973 until 1982, when Deutsche Forschungs- he was appointed full professor of applied mathematics gemeinschaft (Ger- at the University of Augsburg. Since 1991 he has been full man Science Founda- professor of information technology at the Technical Uni- tion). Thirteen such versity of Berlin, as well as vice president of the Konrad prizes were awarded Zuse Center for Information Technology in Berlin. to German re- Grötschel has received several major prizes for his work, searchers who have including the Fulkerson Prize of the AMS and the Mathe- made outstanding matical Programming Society (1982), the IBM Prize of the contributions to their Institute of Management Science (1984), the Karl Heinz fields, which range Beckurts Prize (1990), and the George B. Dantzig Prize of over mathematics, the the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the sciences, medicine, Mathematical Programming Society (1991). He has been a and engineering. The member of the Council of the Deutsche Mathematiker- prize consists of a five-year grant of DM 1.5 million (ap- Vereinigung (DMV, German Mathematical Society) since proximately $1 million) for theoretical researchers and 1988 and is a past president of the DMV. -
Cover June 2011
z NOBEL LAUREATES IN Qui DNA RESEARCH n u SANGRAM KESHARI LENKA & CHINMOYEE MAHARANA F 1. Who got the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1933) for discovering the famous concept that says chromosomes carry genes? a. Gregor Johann Mendel b. Thomas Hunt Morgan c. Aristotle d. Charles Darwin 5. Name the Nobel laureate (1959) for his discovery of the mechanisms in the biological 2. The concept of Mutations synthesis of ribonucleic acid and are changes in genetic deoxyribonucleic acid? information” awarded him a. Arthur Kornberg b. Har Gobind Khorana the Nobel Prize in 1946: c. Roger D. Kornberg d. James D. Watson a. Hermann Muller b. M.F. Perutz c. James D. Watson 6. Discovery of the DNA double helix fetched them d. Har Gobind Khorana the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1962). a. Francis Crick, James Watson, Rosalind Elsie Franklin b. Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Willkins c. James Watson, Maurice Willkins, Rosalind Elsie Franklin 3. Identify the discoverer and d. Maurice Willkins, Rosalind Elsie Franklin and Francis Crick Nobel laureate of 1958 who found DNA in bacteria and viruses. a. Louis Pasteur b. Alexander Fleming c. Joshua Lederberg d. Roger D. Kornberg 4. A direct link between genes and enzymatic reactions, known as the famous “one gene, one enzyme” hypothesis, was put forth by these 7. They developed the theory of genetic regulatory scientists who shared the Nobel Prize in mechanisms, showing how, on a molecular level, Physiology or Medicine, 1958. certain genes are activated and suppressed. Name a. George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum these famous Nobel laureates of 1965.