The Biophysical Society is proud to announce the 2019 Society award recipients. These members will be honored at the 63rd Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in March.
Raymond Stevens, University of Southern California, will receive the Anatrace Membrane Protein Award for pioneering the development of membrane protein structural biology technologies including nanoliter crystallization robotics, nanoliter imaging, micro-expression and screening of constructs, thermal stability analysis, and the fusion partner toolchest that led to groundbreaking seminal work on the structures and mechanistic understanding of the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily.
Enrico Gratton, University of California, Irvine, will receive the Avanti Award in Lipids for his pioneering work in the development and application of fluorescence methodologies to the study of lipid-lipid, lipid-protein and membrane dynamics and, for more than 30 years, his seminal contributions to our understanding of lipid biophysics, both in vitro and in living cells.
Elizabeth Rhoades, University of Pennsylvania, will receive the Michael and Kate Bárány Award for Young Investigators for her deep insight into structure-function relations in disordered systems, leadership in the identification and use of protein models that are representative of human disease, and innovative use of single-molecule tools in both intra-, ultra-, and extra-cellular milieus.
Meytal Landau, Israel Institute of Technology, will receive the Margaret Oakley Dayoff Award for outstandingly creative and committed work to solve difficult research problems, including how small molecules bind to amyloid-like fibers of one of the two principal proteins of Alzheimer’s disease.
Harry Noller, University of California, Santa Cruz, will receive the Ignacio Tinoco Award for his groundbreaking studies of the structure, dynamics, and function of the ribosome; his outstanding mentorship and training of scores of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers; and his extraordinary ability to engage and collaborate with his colleagues to advance knowledge and understanding in the field.
Yves De Koninck, Laval University, Canada, will receive the Emily M. Gray Award for his significant contributions to education in biophysics, including a distinguished record of excellence in mentoring research scientists and in developing novel educational methods and materials.
Juli Feigon, University of California, Los Angeles, will receive the Founders Award for her courageous, creative work in structural biology of DNA and RNA; pioneering use of NMR to study structures and dynamics of nucleic acids; establishing the conformational variability of DNA, including the first structures of triplexes, quadruplexes, and aptamers; and landmark studies on telomerase in the structural biology of DNA and RNA.
Jeff Gelles, Brandeis University, will receive the Kazuhiko Kinosita Award in Single Molecule Biophysics for his pioneering research that has established new fields, created new techniques, reached across disciplines, encouraged new — and new-to-single-molecules — investigators, and, through a focus on biological relevance, brought single-molecule studies to a broad audience.
Songi Han, University of California, Santa Barbara, will receive the Innovation Award for her invention and development of magnetic resonance methods that advance our fundamental understanding of biological hydration, which perfectly reflects the interdisciplinary essence of biophysical research.