2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine
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Scientist Elizabeth Blackburn receives a hero's welcome at UCSF on Oct. 5, the day she learned that she was named to receive the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, while UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann talks about the significance of the award.
Blackburn Gets Personal, Reflects on Path Leading Up to Nobel Prize
By Robin Hindery
A week after being named UCSF’s—and her native Australia’s—first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, sat down with UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, to discuss the elusive goal of work-life balance and the importance of following one’s passions and making time for “intense relaxation.”
The conversation in Cole Hall on Oct. 13 was Blackburn’s first formal appearance at UCSF since the day of the Nobel Prize announcement on Oct. 5. She shares the award with Carol Greider, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Jack Szostak, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, for their co-discovery of an enzyme, telomerase, that plays a key role in normal cell function, as well as in cell aging and most cancers.
Blackburn’s conversation with the Chancellor, which took place before an audience of students from both UCSF and local high schools, focused less on the formal science behind Blackburn’s award-winning research and more on her background and career leading up to that historic achievement.
UCSF Coverage
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UCSF’s Elizabeth Blackburn Receives Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
