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2020 Ceremony

Pearl Meister Greengard Prize logo printed on paper, out of focus flower on left

PEARL MEISTER GREENGARD PRIZE

An International Award Recognizing Outstanding Women in Biomedical Research

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020
Virtual Ceremony
5:30 – 6:30 p.m. EDT
 
Video

2020 PRIZE RECIPIENT

Joanne Chory, Ph.D.

Joanne Chory, Ph.D.

Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair in Plant Biology
Executive Director,
Harnessing Plants Initiative
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Investigator,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Joanne Chory’s pioneering discoveries have transformed our understanding of plant growth and development. Through elegant molecular genetic studies of the small flowering mustard plant Arabidopsis thaliana, a favored research model, she determined how plants optimize their size and form for photosynthetic life in response to the changing light in their environments. At the Salk Institute, where she runs an integrated program spanning atoms to ecosystems, she and her colleagues determined one of the most complex signaling networks that control plant growth. As director of Salk’s Harnessing Plants Initiative, Dr. Chory is using this knowledge to combat climate change.

An alumna of Oberlin College, Dr. Chory received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Following postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, she joined the Salk faculty in 1988. Dr. Chory is the recipient of many honors, including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the Gruber Genetics Prize.


SPECIAL GUEST PRESENTER

Frances Beinecke

Frances Beinecke

Former President,
National Resources Defense Council

Frances Beinecke served as NRDC’s president from 2006 to 2015, leading an organization that seeks solutions to some of the biggest environmental challenges of our time. In 2010, President Obama appointed her to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Ms. Beinecke was a member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s advisory board from 2012 through 2016. She currently serves on the advisory board of the MIT Energy Initiative, as well as the boards of the NRDC Action Fund, ClientEarth, Climate Central, and the World Resources Institute. Ms. Beinecke holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale College and a master’s from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She has received the Yale Medal and numerous other awards and honors.

The Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, awarded annually by The Rockefeller University, was established by the late Dr. Paul Greengard, who served as the University’s Vincent Astor Professor, and his wife, the sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard. Dr. Greengard donated his monetary share of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Medicine to Rockefeller and, in partnership with generous supporters of the University, created this major international prize. The prize is name in memory of Dr. Greengard’s mother, who died giving birth to him.

Pearl Meister Greengard Prize



Contact

Amanda Martinez
Director, Women & Science Initiative
The Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue, Box 164
New York, NY 10065


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