News & Events
Highlights
- Ramakrishnan Awarded Nobel Prize
- Change in Chairmanship
- Biochemistry Continues "Greening" Effort
- Benchmarks Departmental Newsletter Fall 2009
Venki Ramakrishnan Awarded Nobel Prize
Cheers and celebrations erupted on October 7th when former faculty colleague, Venki Ramakrishnan, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in determining the structure of the ribosome. Venki solved the structure of the 30S subunit at moderate resolution while still in Utah, and then went on to determine the high-resolution structures that revealed the atomic detail after he moved to the MRC-LMB in Cambridge, England, in 1999. In addition to the very challenging experimental work, Venki has derived very satisfying functional lessons from the structures he determined, particularly in understanding how the ribosome decodes the genetic code. We offer our heartiest congratulations to a most deserving scientist and friend. Venki shares the award with Thomas Steitz of Yale University and Ada Yonath of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science.
Dr. Ramakrishnan will speak on campus Wednesday, November 18, 2009:
12:00 noon, Huntsman Cancer Institute 6th Floor Eccles Auditorium, "Selection of tRNA by the ribosome during decoding of the genetic message"
6:30 p.m., Rice-Eccles Stadium Tower, 451 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, "The Ribosome: The cell's protein making factory and how antibiotics block it"
Change in Chairmanship
After 24 years Dana Carroll stepped down August 1st as chair of biochemistry to spend more time at the bench. He and Marty Rechsteiner became co-chairs of biochemistry in the fall of 1985. Dana became solo chair in 1998. He is succeeded by new Co-Chairs Chris Hill and Wes Sundquist. Prior to Dana and Marty, the department had only two chairs – Leo Samuels (1944-1964) and Sid Velick (1964-1978)—and one acting chair—Hans Rilling (1978-1985).
Dana Carroll
Wes Sundquist and Chris Hill
Biochemistry Continues "Greening" Effort
Fifty-three members of our department participated in the state wide Clean The Air challenge to encourage walking, biking, carpooling, and public transportation. Special congratulations to Debbie Ang and Heidi Schubert, who won the use of a compressed natural gas car for a week, and to Ammie Krauchuk Lords (Bass Lab), who was the department champion. She saved 2545 miles over 78 trips by using a combination of bike, bus and TRAX.
This year we took a very simple but effective approach to reducing our energy consumption, environmental impact, and costs to the university. With the help of the University’s energy manager, Jay Sisam, and behaviorist, Bianca Shama, fluorescent tubes were removed from areas that had more artificial lighting than needed or desired. This easy fix has reduced our electricity consumption for lighting by about 25% and saved the University about $8,000/year. Moreover, many people have found that simply turning off office lights and opening window blinds provides both savings and a more pleasant workspace.
L-R: Chaz Langelier, Heidi Schubert, Chris Hill, Devin Close, Ryan ConstantineBenchmarks Newsletter
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