Two faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis, Benjamin Garcia and Rohit V. Pappu, have received annual awards from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Garcia, the Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at WashU Medicine, will receive the 2025 Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award. The honor recognizes leading scientists who work to overcome or reduce barriers that prevent people from historically marginalized groups from entering the sciences. Garcia, who has developed cutting-edge proteomics techniques to study proteins involved in regulating genetic expression, has spearheaded efforts to increase and encourage diversity both within his specialty and in the wider scientific community.
Pappu will receive the ASBMB DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences. This award is given to a scientist for accessible and innovative developments or applications of computation to enhance research in the life sciences at the molecular or cellular level. Pappu is a professor of biomedical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering and director of the Center for Biomolecular Condensates at WashU. The Pappu lab explores the biophysical principles underlying the form, function and phase behaviors of intrinsically disordered and multivalent proteins and connects these to understand how cellular matter is organized in space and time.
