| 1 | Name: | Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn | |
| Institution: | University of California, San Francisco | ||
| Year Elected: | 2005 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1948 | ||
Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn is a leader in the area of telomere and telomerase research and has made key discoveries in different aspects of telomere function and biology. In 1985, she discovered the ribonucleoprotein enzyme telomerase, and since that time, hers has become a lead laboratory in manipulating and studying telomerase activity in cells. Having amassed considerable knowledge and experience in the effects this has on cells, Dr. Blackburn and her research team at the University of California, San Francisco worked with a variety of organisms and human cells, especially cancer cells, with the goal of understanding telomerase and telomere biology. Her work on telomeres and telomerase has been published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Blackburn earned her B.Sc. (1970) and M.Sc. (1972) degrees from the University of Melbourne in Australia, and her Ph.D. (1975) from the University of Cambridge in England. She did her postdoctoral work in molecular and cellular biology from 1975-77 at Yale University. In 1978, Dr. Blackburn joined the department of molecular biology at the University of California Berkeley. In 1990, she joined the departments of microbiology and immunology, and biochemistry and biophysics, at the University of California, San Francisco, and she was department chair of the department of microbiology and immunology from 1993-99, and the Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF as well as a non-resident fellow of the Salk Institute. In January 2016 Dr. Blackburn became professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco, and was President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies until 2018. Throughout her career, Dr. Blackburn has been honored by her peers as the recipient of many prestigious awards. These include the Eli Lilly Research Award for Microbiology and Immunology (1988), the National Academy of Science Award in Molecular Biology (1990), and honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University (1991), the University of Pennsylvania (2004), Bard College (2004), Brandeis University (2004), and the University of Chicago (2004). She was a Harvey Society Lecturer at the Harvey Society in New York (1990) and recipient of the UCSF Women's Faculty Association Award (1995). Most recently, she was awarded the Australia Prize (1998), the Harvey Prize (1999), the Keio Prize (1999), the American Association for Cancer Research-G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award (2000), the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor (2000), the AACR-Pezcoller Foundation International Award for Cancer Research (2001), the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan Award (2001), the Bristol Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Cancer Research (2003), the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine (2004), the Kirk A. Landon-American Association for Cancer Research Prize for Basic Cancer Research (2005), the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science (2005), and the Nobel Prize in Medicine (2009). She was named California Scientist of the Year in 1999 and was elected President of the American Society for Cell Biology for the year 1998. Dr. Blackburn is an elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1993) and an elected Member of the Institute of Medicine (2000). She is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1991), the Royal Society of London (1992), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000). She was elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 1993 and was elected as a Member of the Institute of Medicine in 2000. She was awarded the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in Basic Medical Research (2006). In 2007 she was named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, and she is the 2008 North American Laureate for L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science. | |||