Awards and Honors

The School of Molecular & Cellular Biology and its departments of Biochemistry, Cell & Developmental Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular & Integrative Physiology recognize outstanding undergraduate, graduate, faculty, staff, and alumni with several awards and fellowships. In addition to school and departmental honors, MCB is always thrilled to highlight awards from other campus units, and national/international organizations. Some of the most recent news stories spotlighting our community are listed below. 

Carl Woese receives Distinguished Service Medallion

Carl Woese
The UI Board of Trustees voted March 11 to present its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medallion, to Carl R. Woese, the Stanley O. Ikenberry Endowed Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Microbiology.

Professor Phillip A. Newmark

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On May 27th, Phillip A. Newmark, an associate professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology (CDB), was named a 2008 Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. With this award Dr. Newmark joins a select group of 56 biomedical scientists chosen from among 1,070 applications...

MCB Undergraduate Awards

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Numerous teachers and students were honored in this year's School of Molecular and Cellular Biology Awards Ceremony, held in May.

Dr. Robert Gennis Invested as Harry E. Preble Endowed Professor

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Professor of Biochemistry Robert Gennis has been invested as a Harry E. Preble Endowed Professor.

Woese to Recieve Achievement Award

Carl Woese
Professor of Microbiology Carl Woese will be honored this year with the Abbott-ASM Lifetime Achievement Award for his work on microbe diversity.

UI researcher named Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences

William Greenough
William T. Greenough was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on April 24. His research has crossed across the disciplines and he holds multiple faculty appointments. He is a Swanlund Endowed Chair, director of the university's Center for Advanced Study and a professor in the...

Research involving adult stem cells receives state grants

Stephen Kaufman
Stephen J. Kaufman was awarded a state grant last week for his research on stem cells. "Kaufman, a professor of cell and developmental biology and member of the university's neuroscience program, — received $250,000 to focus on mesoangioblasts adult stem cells that have the capacity to become...

U. of I. microbiologist Carl Woese elected to Royal Society

Microbiologist Carl Woese of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society.
"Microbiologist Carl Woese of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society, the world's oldest continuously active scientific academy in the world."

Critical research initiatives receive recognition, funding

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The Vice Chancellor for Research's Critical Research Initiatives program will sponsor six projects this year. Of those six, co-principal investigators Wilfred van der Donk, professor of chemistry and affiliate of the Department of Biochemistry and William Metcalf, professor of microbiology, have...

Robert B. Gennis awarded an honorary doctorate

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The Faculty of Natural Sciences of Stockholm University made the award to Professor Gennis in a ceremony held at City Hall in Stockholm, Sweden. The award was for achievements in the area of Bioenergetics.