Biochemistry to bestow four 'Founders' awards

The Biochemistry Department will sponsor a scientific symposium May 22 that will feature the winners of the first Stanford Biochemistry Founders' Award for Doctoral Excellence. The new award recognizes outstanding achievement among doctoral candidates as part of the department's commitment to advance gender diversity in biochemistry and the molecular biosciences.

'Our hope is to identify outstanding doctoral scholars and mentor them early as part of the process of developing a larger faculty position applicant pool,' said Suzanne Pfeffer, PhD, professor of biochemistry.

The winners are Lani Keller of UCSF; Jan Pawlicki and Brooke Rosenzweig, both of Yale University; and Shana Topp of Emory University. They were selected from a nationwide pool of doctoral candidates on the basis of quality, originality and significance of their work. The awardees will present brief research talks in a symposium beginning at 2 p.m. in Munzer Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

The award honors the contributions of the founders of the department: Robert Baldwin, Paul Berg, David Hogness, Dale Kaiser, Arthur Kornberg and Robert Lehman.