International Research Scholars: Honors and Achievements
WHO Grants Awarded to Support Collaborations between Five International Research Scholars
The World Health Organization recently awarded two grants to HHMI international research scholars. Valerie Mizrahi of South Africa and Ross Coppel of Australia received a grant to help them develop a Mycobacterium smegmatis microarray. The microarray will facilitate comparative studies on various mycobacterial species and allow the researchers to characterize M. tuberculosis mutants defective in cell wall biosynthetic processes. The ultimate goal of this research is to find attenuated strains of mycobacteria that might be candidates for a tuberculosis vaccine. Brendan Crabb, also of Australia, received the second award; Dominique Soldati of the United Kingdom and Alan Cowman of Australia were named as associate investigators. This grant is to develop transfection tools in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Dr. Soldati is an expert on the molecular biology of another protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, and the Australian group plans to apply her technique to the malaria parasite. Both groups' collaborations arose from discussions conducted at the 2001 HHMI International Research Scholars Meeting in Vancouver.
International Research Scholars Pedro Labarca and Raúl Padrón Elected to Academy of Sciences of Latin America
The Academia de Ciencias de America Latina (ACAL) recently announced that it had elected Chilean Scholar Pedro Labarca and Venezuelan Scholar Raúl Padrón as academic members. The academy cited Dr. Labarca for his fundamental contributions to the study of ion channels, in particular their properties and roles in the physiology of sperm. He was one of three Chileans elected. Dr. Padrón was elected for the high quality of his scientific work and for his contributions to the progress of science and to the scientific integration of Latin America and the Caribbean. He was one of four Venezuelans elected. Both Scholars were recently awarded second five-year grants by HHMI, Labarca for his research on the role of synaptic vesicle turnover in short-term memory, and Padrón for his research on the structure of muscle fibers. Currently, ACAL has about 170 members, three of whom are also HHMI Scholars: Armando Parodi and Carlos Frasch from Argentina and Luis Herrera-Estrella from Mexico.
Current and Former International Research Scholars from Poland Elected to Polish Academy of Sciences
On May 23, 2002, Malgorzata Kossut of the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, and Mariusz Jaskolski of Poznan University, who received five-year HHMI awards in 1995, and Andrzej Jerzmanowski of Warsaw University, who received his second award this year, were elected as corresponding members to the Polish Academy of Sciences. Dr. Jerzmanowski conducts research on factors involved in chromatin remodeling. Mariusz Jaskolski is a leading structural biologist in Poland, having established one of eastern Europe's best-known centers for crystallographic investigation of macromolecular structure.
International Research Scholars Saulius Klimašauskas and Virginijus Siksnys Awarded the National Science Prize of Lithuania
At a ceremony on March 7, 2002, the government of Lithuania conferred it's highest scientific honor, the National Science Prize, on two current HHMI International Research Scholars: Saulius Klimašauskas and Virginijus Siksnys. The honor is bestowed annually on researchers working in the physical sciences, the biomedical sciences, technology, and the humanities. Both scholars are from the Institute of Biotechnology Fermentas in Vilnius. Dr. Klimašauskas recently received his second HHMI award, and his research concerns the mechanisms of DNA modification by methylation. Dr. Siksnys received an HHMI award in 2000 for his work on restriction endonucleases.
Past Honors and Achievements
International Research Scholars Laszlo Nagy and
George Mosialos Receive EMBO Awards
In May 2001, the European
Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) named Laszlo
Nagy from Hungary and George
Mosialos from Greece as EMBO Young Investigators. They are among 56
scientists to receive the three-year awards, which are being made for the
first time this year. The awards support postdoctoral researchers who are
within the first three years of setting up an independent laboratory and
who are working on molecular aspects of one of the life sciences.
Canadian Research Scholars Honored
In June
2001, the Royal Society of Canada announced that international research
scholars Brett
Finlay and Roderick
McInnes have been elected as fellows. Fellowship in the society is one
of Canada's most prestigious honors. Dr. Finlay, who is a professor at the
University of British Columbia, has been a Hughes-supported scholar since
the inception of the International Program in 1991. He was nominated to
the Royal Society of Canada for his contributions to the field of
microbiology, specifically to our understanding of the processes whereby
Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli cause disease. Dr.
McInnes, scientific director of the Institute of Genetics of the Canadian
Institutes of Health Research, is known for his innovative work on the
genes controlling eye development and on inherited blindness.
Canadian HHMI scholars also garnered four of the five Distinguished Investigator appointments made in 2001 by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. They are Dr. Finlay, Philippe Gros, Peter St George Hyslop, and Nahum Sonenberg.
In 2000, Dr. Tamás Freund, an HHMI International Research Scholar in Hungary, won the Bolyai Prize. The President of the Republic of Hungary, Arpad Goncz, presented Dr. Freund with this prestigious award, named after the mathematician Janos Bolyai. The founding decree of the Bolyai Prize states: "The Bolyai Prize can be bestowed upon a Hungarian or Hungarian-born person, who has achieved outstanding internationally recognized results in the fields of scientific research, development, teaching new generations of scientists, or in the use of those results for the benefit of economy and society." Dr. Freund was chosen by a committee that included the President of the Republic of Hungary and many well-known internationally recognized scientists, many of whom are members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Freund is currently the Head of the Department of Neurosciences, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, the Head of the Department of Functional Neuroanatomy, Institute of Experimental Medicine, and the Deputy Director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. He was named an HHMI International Research Scholar in 1995.
In May 2000, International Research Scholar Janet Rossant of Canada was elected to the Royal Society for her contributions to our understanding of cell fate, cell commitment, and molecular differentiation in mammalian embryos. The British equivalent of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society each year elects up to 42 distinguished scientists from Britain and the Commonwealth, and up to six foreign fellows, to its ranks, which now number about 1,300. The Royal Society, which was founded in 1660 and is credited with instituting, in the 17th century, peer review of journal articles, today plays a leading role in promoting science and technology development in Britain. Membership is considered a signal honor.
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