| 1 | Name: | Dr. Joan A. Steitz | |
| Institution: | Yale University | ||
| Year Elected: | 1992 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1941 | ||
Joan A. Steitz is Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University as well as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She has made important research contributions to the study of the role of small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) in eukaryotic cells, and she is credited with discovering that complexes containing these snRNAs reacted specifically with sera from autoimmune patients. She then recognized that sequences in one of these snRNAs were complementary to sequences important in splicing of RNA in the nucleus of cells. This hypothesis proved correct and played a critical role in directing the field. Dr. Steitz is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry (1982), the National Medal of Science (1987), the Dickson Prize for Science (1989), the Cristopher Columbus Discovery Award in Biomedical Research (1992), the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award (2002), the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2008), the Connecticut Medal of Science (2015), the William Clyde DeVane Medal (2016), and the Wolf Prize in Medicine (2021). A graduate of Antioch College (B.S., 1963) and Harvard University (Ph.D., 1967), she was elected to the membership of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1982 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1983. | |||