Sheila Teves, a National Science Foundation graduate fellow in the lab of the Hutchinson Center’s Dr. Steven Henikoff, is among 13 graduate students chosen to receive the 2013 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award sponsored by the Basic Sciences Division.
A committee of Center investigators and graduate students chose the winners—from nominations submitted internationally—on the basis of the quality, originality and significance of their work. The recipients, all advanced students at or near completion of their studies in the biological sciences, will share their research at the annual Weintraub Symposium May 3 at Fred Hutch.
Teves, a doctoral candidate in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Washington, will present her thesis, "Dynamic Interplay between RNA Polymerase II and the Nucleosome."
"My goal is to understand transcription, a very fundamental question in cellular biology, and I’ve tried to approach this question from several angles," Teves said. "I have attended the past few Weintraub symposiums, and it seems almost surreal to be part of the awards now—to be in the company of giants who have accomplished so much in such a short period of time."
The award, established in 2000, honors the late Dr. Harold M. "Hal" Weintraub, a founding member of the Basic Sciences Division, who in 1995 died from brain cancer at age 49. Weintraub was an international leader in the field of molecular biology; he identified genes responsible for instructing cells to differentiate, or develop, into specific tissues such as muscle and bone.
"Hal Weintraub was a close colleague and an extraordinary inspiration for me, and Sheila embodies the attributes that Hal valued," Henikoff said. "In her thesis research, she thought deeply about the important problem that she was interested in tackling, came up with a simple approach, made a surprising discovery and arrived at an intuitively appealing explanation for what she found."
"Sheila was not stymied by the technical difficulties that confronted her to go even deeper into the matter, and she seems to have had fun in the process, and in doing it on her own," Henikoff said.
The award recipients will receive a certificate, travel expenses and an honorarium from the Weintraub and Groudine Fund, established to foster intellectual exchange through the promotion of programs for graduate students, fellows and visiting scholars.
2013 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award Recipients
University of California, San Francisco
Christopher Baker
Ph.D. in genetics awarded in 2012
The Rockefeller University
Teresa Davoli
Ph.D. candidate, cell biology and genetics
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Ruei-Jiun Hung
Ph.D. candidate, neuroscience
Robert Orchard
Ph.D. candidate, molecular microbiology
Stanford University
Timothy Kelliher
Ph.D. candidate, biology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Thomas Vierbuchen
Ph.D. in cancer biology awarded in 2012
University of North Carolina
Kathryn Kohl
Ph.D. candidate, genetics and molecular biology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Tara LeGates
Ph.D. candidate, biology
University of California, San Francisco
Paolo Manzanillo
Ph.D. candidate, microbiology & immunology
University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Sheila Teves
Ph.D. candidate, molecular and cellular biology
University of California, Berkeley
Jakob von Moltke
Ph.D. candidate, infectious disease
Adam Williamson
Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology awarded in 2012
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Weinberg
Ph.D. in biology awarded in February 2013
