Accolades

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Joachim Messing, director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, was recently inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.

Photography: 

Nick Romanenko

Joachim Messing Joins Top Science Academy

Joachim Messing, director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, was recently inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors for an American scientist or engineer. Messing, among the world’s top experts in molecular genetics, is one of 84 new members, recognized for distinguished and continuing achievements in research.

Messing—the Selman A. Waksman Chair in Molecular Genetics and a professor of molecular biology—developed the shotgun sequencing approach that was used in the Human Genome Project, which has been instrumental in deciphering the genetic code of crop plants. The genetic-engineering technique, which he provided to scientists worldwide (for free instead of patenting), has been critical in the agricultural  biotechnology industry and in developing new pharmaceuticals and diagnosing diseases.

“As one of the world’s leading molecular geneticists, Joachim Messing has been instrumental in creating disease-resistant crops that are feeding the world,” says Rutgers University–New Brunswick chancellor Richard L. Edwards.

A top priority for Messing, who came to Rutgers 30 years ago to oversee research at the Waksman Institute, has been finding innovative methods to develop superior crops with higher yields and nutritional quality. His work concentrates on providing more sustainable, healthy, and productive sources of food for the world’s population and on extracting biofuels from plants that grow on water or marginal land and do not compete with land use or food production.

Messing was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology and received the 2014 Promega Biotechnology Research Award. He is also a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the oldest continuously existing scientific association in the world. The Wolf Foundation of Israel recognized Messing in 2013 when he won the Wolf Prize in Agriculture, which honors scientists and artists whose “achievements are in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples.” — Robin Lally

Guggenheim Fellowships for Two Professors at Rutgers–Newark

Two Rutgers University–Newark professors recently received John Simon Guggenheim fellowships in the humanities for 2015. Beryl Satter, the author of the well-regarded history Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America (Metropolitan Books, 2009), was awarded a $50,000 grant for her follow-up project, ShoreBank, Development, and the Fight Against Black Economic Marginalization. Akhil Sharma, whose latest book, Family Life: A Novel (W.W. Norton, 2014), which the New York Times singled out as one of its Ten Best Books of 2014, received a $50,000 grant to help finish Cosmopolitan, his collection of short stories, several of which have been published in the New Yorker and the Atlantic. Satter, a professor of history, was featured in the Spring 2010 issue of Rutgers magazine. Sharma, an assistant professor in the M.F.A. creative writing program at Rutgers–Newark, was featured in the Winter 2015 Rutgers magazine.

Guggenheim grants for the United States and Canada were given to 175 recipients this year. Satter was one of just four recipients in the category of U.S. history, and Sharma was one of 10 winners in  fiction. — Lawrence Lerner