Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is recognized as one of the leading scientists of her generation. She is one of the youngest scientist to receive the MacArthur "genius" award. A Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at Berkeley, she oversees a cutting edge research lab. She has a reputation as an outstanding professor and mentor. Today's Out Spotlight is Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi.

Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi is an American chemist. She is the T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley; Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco; is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Director of the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Bertozzi was born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 19,1966. The daughter of a physics professor,William Bertozzi. Growing up she worked summer jobs at MIT. But it wasn't all science, her early interests included sports and music, including considering a career in music. Her sister, Andrea, is also a scientist.

She found her niche in organic chemistry during her sophomore year at Harvard University. She received her bachelor's in chemistry from Harvard, where she worked with Dr. Joe Grabowski on the design and construction of a photoacoustic calorimeter. She graduated summa cum laude and received an award for best senior thesis. After graduating she worked briefly at Bell Labs with Dr. Chris Chidsey and at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Bertozzi completed her Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley in 1993 with Dr. Mark Bednarski, working on the chemical synthesis of oligosaccharide analogs. She was a postdoctoral fellow at UC San Francisco with Dr. Steven Rosen, where she studied the activity of endothelial oligosaccharides in promoting cell adhesion at inflammation sites. She joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996.

Her research focuses on the glycobiology underlying diseases like cancer and inflammatory disorders such as arthritis, and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. Believing she can link sugar molecules' structures with the presence or absence of disease, Dr. Bertozzi developed a unique system to track cell development. Her work has brought a significantly advanced understanding of cell surface oligosaccharides involved in cell recognition and inter-cellular communication.

The Bertozzi lab has developed significant tools for research, which included chemical tools for studying glycans in living systems and more recently nanotechnologies for probing biological systems.

Within six years of her post doctoral career she received a MacArthur grant. She was one of the youngest scientists ever to receive the "genius" award, at the age of 33. Receiving a MacArthur award at any age is an accomplishment of a lifetime, to receive one at her age and so early in her career is staggering.

Her research team has published over 200 articles. The journals Nature and Angewandte Chemie, an influential chemistry journal, have praised her work. She is recognized as a leader in the field of Glycobiology.

She is the Co-editor of "Glycochemistry: Principles, Synthesis, and Applications. And is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. There are about 350 Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators in the U.S. These investigators continue to push the bounds of knowledge in many important areas in biomedical research. Widely known for their creativity and productivity, the current group of HHMI investigators includes 13 Nobel laureates and 141 members of the National Academy of Sciences.

HHMI urges its researchers to take risks, to explore unproven avenues, and to embrace the unknown—even if it means uncertainty or the chance of failure. It was founded by American businessman Howard Hughes in 1953. It is one of the largest private funding organizations for biological and medical research in the U.S. HHMI spends about $1 million per HHMI Investigator per year, which amounts to annual investment in biomedical research of about $450 million. The institute has an endowment of $14 billion, making it the second-wealthiest philanthropic organization in the United States and the second best endowed medical research foundation in the world.

In 2010, Dr.Bertozzi received Lemelson-MIT Prize. She was the first woman to win the prestigious prize. The Lemelson Foundation awards several prizes yearly to inventors in U.S. The largest, the Lemelson-MIT Prize,endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, ais administered through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The winner receives $500,000, making it the largest cash prize for invention in the U.S.

Her enthusiasm for her research and her talent for communicating science in the classroom has been recognized by Berkeley administrators. In 2001, UC Berkeley honored her with its prestigious Distinguished Teaching Award.

She likens teaching to telling a story, and her goal for each lecture is to tell a memorable story. For example, in the class she teaches most frequently, an introductory chemistry course for non-chemistry majors, her philosophy is to "recapture in each lecture the thrill I felt when it was revealed to me that molecules are as diverse as human beings."

Hopefully people can look at me and realize that it's okay to be open in their lives and be themselves and do great work and make contributions to the world as scientist. - Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi.