Speakers
KEYNOTE SPEAKER JOHN ABELSON
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John Abelson is a Renaissance scientist. He is best known for his work in RNA Processing, especially the characterization of eukaryotic splicing, done while a Professor at the University of California-San Diego and later at Caltech. John was also a pioneer biotechnologist; his research on other fronts prompted the formation of Agouron Pharmaceuticals which developed Veracept, now a frontline anti-HIV compound. Among many other honors that acknowledge his contributions to science, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the RNA Society. He retired from Caltech in 2005 and joined the lab of his wife, Christine Guthrie, at the University of California-San Francisco. As an Adjunct Professor he continues his work on understanding the dynamics of the spliceosome. In his ‘spare’ time, John pursues a wide-ranging interest in geomicrobiology, which will be the subject of a Saturday Morning Science talk, geared more at a general public audience but will be included in the conference schedule. For more details, see http://satscience.missouri.edu/schedule.php for the Saturday Morning Science series. See also http://www.jbc.org/content/284/52/35997.full.pdf for an autobiography written by John, outlining just a few highlights in his remarkable career in science. |
