Graduate students Lu Han and Michael Mierzejewski were awarded the Elmer H. Stotz Graduate Fellowship in Biochemistry Award. This award was established by the Stotz family to honor Dr. Elmer Stotz, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Biochemistry. It is awarded to a Ph.D. student in Biochemistry.

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Alan Grossfield, was one of two professors who were awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award. Established in 2013, this award is given to an outstanding graduate student teacher for record of excellence in classroom instruction.

Dr. Eric Phizicky, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Dean’s Professor, was one of four professors awarded a Faculty Mentoring Award. Dr. Phizicky won the Mentoring of Academic Faculty Award.

Dr. Jeffrey Hayes, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics & Chair of the Department, was awarded the Shohei Koide Professor in Biochemistry and Biophysics. This is a new professorship, established in 2013, and is intended to support the Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

Congratulations to all of our winners!

Eric Phizicky, Ph.D.

Eric M. Phizicky, Ph.D., dean's professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and member of the University's Center for RNA Biology, has been elected to Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology (Academy). The Academy is the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the world's oldest and largest life science organization. The mission of the Academy is to recognize scientists for outstanding contributions to microbiology and provide microbiological expertise in the service of science and the public.

Over the last 50 years, over 2,700 distinguished scientists have been elected to the Academy. Fellows are elected through a highly selective, annual, peer review process, based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology. Each elected Fellow has built an exemplary career in basic and applied research, teaching, clinical and public health, industry or government service. Academy Fellows are eminent leaders in the field of microbiology and are relied upon for authoritative advice and information on critical issues in microbiology. Election to Fellowship indicates recognition of distinction in microbiology by one's peers.

We couldn't be more pleased that Eric has been awarded this honor and recognition for his excellence and creativity in the microbiological sciences, said Jeffrey J. Hayes, Ph.D., professor and acting chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Medical Center. On behalf of the department, please join me in offering his well-deserved congratulations!

Phizicky, who came to the Medical Center in 1987, has spent his career working to understand how tRNA is made and how it does its job in the cell, which is to help with the translation of genes into proteins. His lab also focuses on the design, construction and implementation of genomic methods to analyze protein structure and function, work that's conducted in collaboration with Elizabeth Grayhack, Ph.D., associate professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics.