CBS Evening News Feature on the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize
2009 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize Documentary
Courtesy of YouHere Productions LLC.
Origin of the Prize
The Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, awarded by The Rockefeller University, was established by Dr. Paul Greengard,
the Vincent Astor Professor, and his wife, the sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard. Dr. Greengard donated his entire monetary share of the
2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Rockefeller and, in partnership with generous supporters of the University,
created this major international prize. Named in memory of Dr. Greengard's mother, who died giving birth to him,
the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding women scientists.
2009 Recipient
Suzanne Cory, Ph.D., F.R.S.
Professor
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Melbourne, Australia more information
Suzanne Cory is a world-renowned geneticist and pioneering scientific leader. The first woman to serve as director of Australia's prestigious
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, a post she held from 1996 to July 2009, she has been an influential force in shaping science policy in her nation.
Research by Dr. Cory has yielded key insights in immunology and cancer biology. She and her colleagues made important contributions to understanding how
immune system cells known as B lymphocytes assemble their antigen receptors by antibody gene recombination. In later work, they helped to elucidate how
abnormal chromosome rearrangements can lead to the development of cancer. Dr. Cory and associates further broadened the molecular understanding of
cancer through studies of mechanisms that promote tumor formation by interfering with the cell-death programs that normally protect against cancer.
Dr. Cory is a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a fellow
of Great Britain's Royal Society, which awarded her its Royal Medal. A recipient of the Australia Prize, the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award,
and the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Mott Prize, she was recently named a Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government.
In July 2009, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute created a fellowship in Dr. Cory's honor to encourage outstanding women scientists to take up
leadership positions in medical research.
Special Guest Speaker
Wafaa El-Sadr, M.D., M.P.H.
Director
International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs
Columbia University more information
Dr. El-Sadr, a global leader and innovator in the field of infectious disease and public health,
has devoted her career to the prevention and
treatment of diseases that disproportionately affect people with the least access to quality health care.
Well known for developing initiatives that contribute significantly to curbing New York's tuberculosis epidemic in the 1990s,
she also oversees programs that have brought HIV/AIDS care to more than 500,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. El-Sadr was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2008, and elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2009.
