Etcetera

Charles Weissmann Wins German Great Cross of Merit with Star
Charles Weissmann, chair of the Department of Infectology on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute, has won the Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany, a general state decoration awarded by the Federal President for outstanding achievements in the political, economic, cultural, and other fields.

Charles Weissmann began his career with doctoral degrees in both medicine and organic chemistry from Zurich University, following which he turned to the then-new field of molecular biology where he was recognized as one of the most creative investigators over several decades. He contributed to the elucidation of the life cycle of bacteriophages, developed site-directed mutagenesis and was the first to clone and express in E.coli the human alpha-interferon genes. In recent years, Weissmann has made breakthroughs in the investigation of prions (proteinaceous infectious particles lacking a nucleic acid genome), agents that cause mad cow disease in cattle, Chronic Wasting disease in cervids or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

Weissmann received Great Cross of Merit with Star on January 4 at the German Embassy in Bern, Switzerland.

Jun Shi Selected to Receive Novartis Graduate Fellowship in Organic Chemistry
Jun Shi of the Scripps Research Kellogg School of Science and Technology has been selected as the recipient of the Novartis Graduate Fellowship in Organic Chemistry for Minorities and Women. The Novartis fellowship offers a year of support to a graduate student in organic synthesis, including applications of synthesis to biological problems, or computational chemistry as applied to organic or biological systems. Shi is a member of the Baran lab.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu