Prof. Alexander Varshavsky

Prof. Alexander Varshavsky, whose scientific contributions include major advances, over the last three decades, in biochemistry and genetics of the ubiquitin system and regulated protein degradation, is Smits Professor of Cell Biology at Caltech. He received Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow (Russia), before moving, in 1977, to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), and later to Caltech. Prof. Varshavsky is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and a Foreign Member of the Academia Europaea and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). His scientific awards include the 1999 Gairdner International Award (Canada), the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the 2000 Sloan Prize in Cancer Research, the 2000 Hoppe-Seyler Award (Germany), the 2001 Wolf Prize in Medicine (Israel), the 2001 Merck Award, the 2001 Pasarow Award in Cancer Research, the 2001 Massry Prize, the 2001 Max Planck Award (Germany), the 2001 Horwitz Prize, the 2002 Wilson Medal, the 2005 Stein and Moore Award, the 2006 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology, the 2006 Griffuel Prize in Cancer Research (France), the 2006 Gagna Prize (Belgium), the 2007 Schleiden Medal (Germany), the 2008 Gotham Prize in Cancer Research, and the 2010 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Research.