Etcetera

Phil Baran Wins National Fresenius Award
Phil Baran, associate professor at The Scripps Research Institute, has won the 2007 National Fresenius Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS). Established in 1965 and sponsored by the national honorary chemical society Phi Lambda Upsilon, the honor recognizes high scholarship and original investigations in pure and applied chemistry by a faculty member under the age of 35.

Baran explores new avenues for the efficient and practical construction of organic molecules, both naturally occurring and man-made, by pursuing longstanding synthetic challenges and by designing methods of broad utility. He will receive the award and give an address to the Division of Analytical Chemistry in March, in conjunction with the 233rd ACS national meeting in Chicago.

Dale Boger Receives Ernest Guenther Award
Scripps Research Professor Dale Boger has won the Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products from the American Chemical Society. The award, which is sponsored by Givaudan, is given "in recognition of contributions to the total synthesis of complex biologically active natural products and key analogs used to define their mode of action."

Boger works on the total synthesis of biologically active natural products using the tools of organic synthesis to identify, imitate, understand, exploit, and sometimes surpass what nature provides. He will receive the award and give an address to the Division of Organic Chemistry in March, in conjunction with the 233rd ACS national meeting in Chicago.

Benjamin Cravatt Selected as 2007 Irving Sigal Young Investigator
Professor Benjamin Cravatt has been selected as the 2007 Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award winner by The Protein Society. The Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award, sponsored by the Merck Research Laboratories, recognizes an important contribution to the study of proteins by a scientist who is in the early stages of an independent career. Candidates are generally not more than 40 years old.

Cravatt studies the action and regulation of chemical messengers, particularly the fatty acid amides, which mediate physiological phenomena like pain sensation, sleep, and thermoregulation. He designs and uses chemical probes for "active site proteomics," the global analysis of protein function. Cravatt will give an award address at The Protein Society's 21st Symposium in Boston on July 24.

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