Marc Baldus to Received ICMRBS Founders Medal in 2006
Marc
Baldus, Group Leader, Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry,
received the Founders Medal of the International Conference on
Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems (ICMRBS) at its meeting in
Göttingen,
Germany, August 20-25, 2006.
Dr. Baldus has been one of the leaders in developing novel solid-state NMR methods that have enabled solid-state NMR to become a reliable tool for answering biological questions and in applying these methods to important biological systems. He was among the first to solve the structure of a globular protein in the solid state and his group has investigated the structure of membrane proteins, ligands bound to a G-protein coupled receptor, and fibril-forming proteins.
Having worked in Zurich/Switzerland and in Nijmegen/The Netherlands, Baldus received his Ph.D. from the ETH in Zurich with Richard Ernst and Beat Meier in 1996. From 1997-1999, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Robert G. Griffin at MIT, Boston, USA. Following a period as lecturer at the University of Leiden, he joined the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry in 2000, where he currently directs the group in solid-state NMR.
The awardee was selected by a distinguished committee of magnetic resonance experts: Richard R. Ernst (ETH), Klaus Moebius (Free University of Berlin), Jacob Schaefer (Washington University, USA), Gerhard Wagner (Harvard University), and R. Andrew Byrd (National Cancer Institute, USA).
Marc Baldus (center) receives the Founders Medal
from Richard Ernst (left), member of the selection committe, and Andy Byrd (right), former Chair of the ICMRBS Council.
ICMRBS Founders Medal Background:
The ICMRBS Founders Medal, awarded for the first time at the 20th ICMRBS in Toronto, Canada in 2002, is given to a scientist under 41 years of age who has made exceptional contributions to developments and/or progress in the area of magnetic resonance in biological systems. The award carries an honorarium of $3000.
The Founders Medal was struck to honor the three founders of the conference series, which began in 1964: Mildred Cohn (University of Pennsylvania), Oleg Jardetzky (Stanford University), and Robert G. Shulman (Yale University).
- Lewis E. Kay, Professor of Medical Genetics, Biochemistry and Chemistry at the University of Toronto, was chosen as the first recipient. He was honored for his pivotal contributions to biological NMR structure determination technology and the study of macromolecular motions.
- Nico Tjandra, NIH, was the second recipient. He was honored, in part, for his role in developing novel NMR methods, including the measurement of residual dipolar couplings in weakly aligned molecules, which are have had a major impact on the determination of biomolecular structure.
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