American Philosophical Society
Member History

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Residency
Resident[X]
Class
Subdivision
201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry[X]
1Name:  Dr. Frederic M. Richards
 Institution:  Yale University
 Year Elected:  1992
 Class:  2. Biological Sciences
 Subdivision:  201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
 Residency:  Resident
 Living? :   Deceased
 Birth Date:  1925
 Death Date:  January 11, 2009
   
 
A pioneer in crystallography and structural biology, Frederic M. Richards has been Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University since 1991. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1952 and, aside from a year in Copenhagen with Linderstrom Lang and a year in Cambridge with A.C. Chibnell, he has spent his entire academic career at Yale, chairing the department of molecular biology, biophysics and chemistry from 1969-73. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Dr. Richards has received honors such as the Pfizer-Paul Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry (1965), the Kai Linderstrom-Lang Prize in Protein Chemistry (1978) and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology-Merck Award (1988). An intellectual leader, Dr. Richards is admired not only for his meticulous science, which has relevance to many fields, but for his generous, open and warm scientific style.
 
2Name:  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.
 
Election Year
1992[X]