The Academia Europaea Sydney Brenner Medal#
The Academia Europaea (AE) Sydney Brenner Medal (SBM) has been established in 2022 by the Class of Life Sciences (Class C) in memory of one of the founding members of the Academy - Sydney Brenner.
Professor Sydney Brenner
The medal is an initiative of the Class C and has been supported by inaugural donations from John Wong Eu-Li MAE (C5), Balázs Gulyás MAE (C3), Mr Philip Yeo (Singapore) and Dr Philip Goelet (US).
The SBM is given to honour the best in scholarship and personal achievements within a period of not more than 20 years after obtaining the PhD degree (with allowance for career breaks). The award is given to an individual scholar in the field of molecular biology and related disciplines.
The search and evaluation committee consists of the initiators of the Medal, the Chair of Class C and the Section Chairs of Class C, as well as Byrappa Venkatesh (SG), Sir Keith Peters MAE (UK), Michael Hayden (CA) and Philip Goelet (US).
Nominations should be made and submitted by AE members, non-AE-member(s) can second the nomination. All academic nominations must be supported by detailed evidence of the suitability of any candidate. This should include evidence of their international standing, their achievements and impact in the field of molecular biology and related disciplines and also include evidence of impact on the community of scholars, with special regard to younger scientists.
Candidature is not restricted to members of the Academia Europaea, and in case of a non-member judged suitable to receive the award: the award will come with an invitation and induction into membership.
Due to the nature of the Medal, posthumous nominations are not eligible.
The Medallist will receive a Medal with an image of Sydney Brenner and a diploma, and she/he will deliver a Sydney Brenner Memorial Lecture, either at an annual meeting of AE or at a dedicated Class C meeting. The travel and accommodation costs of the Medallist are covered by AE.
Further individual donations in support of the “Sydney Brenner Medal” are welcome. Donors names will be included in a list of sponsors. Please contact the London office for details of how to make a donation.
2023 Winner Eugene W. Yeo#
(UCSD), a founding member of the Institute for Genomic Medicine and member of the UCSD Stem Cell Program and Moores Cancer Center. Dr. Yeo has a BSc in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the UCSD Rady School of Management.
Dr. Yeo’s research interest is in understanding and manipulating RNA processing in development and disease using induced pluripotent stem cell and murine models. His lab demonstrated in vivo RNA targeting with CRISPR/Cas proteins with proof of concept in repeat expansion disorders. His lab developed enhanced CLIP for the purposes of large-scale mapping of protein-RNA interactions. His lab is an active participant in RNA genomics technology and therapeutics development.
Dr. Yeo is on the Editorial Boards of the journals Cell Reports and Cell Research. Dr. Yeo is a recipient of Alfred P Sloan Fellowship in recognition of his work in computational molecular biology (2011) and the inaugural Early Career Award from the International RNA Society (2017). Dr. Yeo was a recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Graduate Scholarship (2000), National Research Foundation Visiting Investigatorship Award (2017), a Blavatnik National Finalist (2018 & 2019) and Xconomy Award Winner for ‘Big Idea’ (2019). Gene is a co-founder of several biotech companies including Locana, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Enzerna and Proteona. Gene serves or had served on the scientific advisory boards of the Allen Institute of Immunology, Locana, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Proteona, Aquinnah, LGC, Nugen and Ribometrix.
For more information please see this document
Read an interview with Professor Eugene Yeo, the inaugural recipient of the Academia Europaea Sydney Brenner Medal.
