Hao Wu was a medical student in Beijing when she first saw the images that would change the course of her career. At an international biochemistry meeting, Michael Rossmann of Purdue University presented the intricate three-dimensional structures of viruses that his group had elucidated…
Gregory Hannon (Photo: CRUK Pioneer Award) Gregory Hannon grew up in western Pennsylvania, where his father worked as a quality inspector at a factory. Hannon had professional aspirations, and assumed he was “destined” to become a physician. “Growing up, I didn’t even know that the…
Gilbert Chu’s passion for biology stretches far back. By ninth grade, he was conducting brain surgery in rats and corresponding with researchers about implanting brain electrodes. But during his first week of college at Princeton, a run-in with a premed student who demanded to copy his lab report…
Christopher Walsh (Photo: Katherine C. Cohen/Boston Children’s Hospital) Christopher Walsh, a 1993 Rita Allen Foundation Scholar, is the recipient of the 16th Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize awarded by the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “Dr. Walsh’s study of genetic mutations and gene functions associated…
Many animals, from birds to humans, learn complex behaviors by observing and mimicking their parents. Male zebra finches learn elaborate mating calls from their fathers, and this process has become a model system for exploring the mechanisms of learning and memory. Michael Long(Photo: NYU Langone Medical Center)…
David Tuveson was born a naturalist. Growing up in Michigan, he says, “I was always outside—looking under a rock, going out on the water to observe and catch things and let them go…I’ve loved science ever since I was conscious.” David Tuveson(Photo: Courtesy of David…
Ajay Chawla delighted in exploring the mechanics of everyday objects from an early age. At first, he recalls, “I spent most of my time taking things apart and not putting them together.” This impulse served him well in school, where he was drawn to math and science, and…
As an undergraduate at The Ohio State University, Christopher Lima split his time between studying biochemistry and playing the trombone in a ska band. When the time came to choose between these two pursuits, Lima opted for a career in science. He delved into structural biology, first as…
Laura Johnston worked as a chemist at an oil refinery, a city council staffer, and a landscape and portrait artist before shifting her focus to biomedical research. Now, she seeks to understand how cells push and prod one another as an organism grows and develops. She has spent…
Robert Weinberg, a 1976 Rita Allen Foundation Scholar, is the recipient of the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Science of Oncology Award.