WHAT: University Professor of Molecular Biology Joachim Messing will be formally invested in the newly created, endowed Selman Waksman Chair in Molecular Genetics
WHO: Professor Joachim Messing, director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers, is the first holder of the chair. He is one of the world’s foremost experts in the genetics of corn and has been deeply involved in the rice, corn and sorghum genome sequencing projects. In 1982, Messing and his colleagues developed the shotgun sequencing approach that represented a significant advance in genetics methodology. It has seen wide usage in such major undertakings as the Human Genome Project.
WHEN: Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009, 3 p.m.
WHERE: Kirkpatrick Chapel, (adjacent to Old Queens Building,) 85 Somerset Street, New Brunswick
BACKGROUND: The endowed chair is named for the late Selman Waksman, a 1915 Rutgers graduate; co-discoverer of streptomycin (the first antibiotic active against tuberculosis); professor of biochemistry and microbiology at Rutgers for four decades; and winner of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The Waksman Chair is being established through a contribution by Michael Seul, founder of BioArray Solutions based in Warren, N.J. Seul’s expertise in biophysical chemistry and image analysis is at the core of BioArray’s proprietary technology platform.
Daniel Vapnek, a co-founder of BioArray Solutions, former chair of the board of BioArray and an adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, joined Seul in making a contribution to the creation of this new Waksman chair.
Media Contact: Ken Branson
732-932-7084, ext. 633
E-mail: kbranson@ur.rutgers.edu