News Release

Dr. Jacqueline Barton To Receive 1998 Women & Science Award

Grant and Award Announcement

American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science

NEW YORK, N.Y., April 21, 1998--The 1998 Weizmann Women & Science Award will be presented to Dr. Jacqueline K. Barton of the California Institute of Technology. The award includes a $25,000 research grant to the scientific project of the recipient's choice.

The Award is given to an outstanding woman scientist in the United States who has made a significant contribution to the field of science. The objective of the award is to enhance the visibility of women in science, and to provide role models who will motivate and encourage the next generation of young women scientists.

Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Barton's research has focused on the structure and properties of our genetic material, DNA. She has designed small molecules which recognize and bind to specific DNA sites and structures and through which she can probe the chemistry of DNA. She has carried out important studies to examine the transport of electric charge through DNA, establishing reactions by which DNA can be damaged from a distance as well as how photochemical lesions in DNA can be repaired, locally or at distant sites on the DNA helix.

Arthur and Marian Hanisch Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Barton has won numerous awards. She was a recipient of a prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and was the first woman to receive the NSF Alan T. Waterman Award and the American Chemical Society's Pure Chemistry Award.

"Dr. Barton has established herself as a leading bio- inorganic chemist, " said Sara Lee Schupf, Chairwoman of the nominating committee for the Award. "In addition, she has played a role in raising the visibility of women scientists by being the first woman scientist to serve on the Board of Directors of the Dow Chemical Company and by being chosen by the Clinton Administration to be a member of the Commission on Future of the National Science Foundation," Mrs. Schupf added. "She is a wonderful model for the future women in science," Sara Schupf concluded.

Dr. Barton grew up in New York City. She was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree at Barnard, and her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at Columbia University.

Presentation of the award will take place at a reception in Dr. Barton's honor at the New York Academy of Sciences, in New York City, on Tuesday, June 2, 1998.

The Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's foremost centers of scientific research and graduate study. It's 2,500 scientists, students, technicians and engineers pursue basic research in the quest for knowledge and the enhancement of the human condition.

New ways of fighting disease and hunger, protecting the environment, and harnessing alternative sources of energy are high priorities.

Weizmann Institute news releases are posted on the World Wide Web at http://www.weizmann.ac.il and also at http://www.eurekalert.org

The American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science website may be viewed at http://www.weizmann-usa.org


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