Washington, DC—May 28, 2008—The 2008 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Roche Diagnostics Alice C. Evans Award is being presented to Jo Handelsman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Professor of Plant Pathology and co-Director, Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute, University of Wisconsin, Madison. This award recognizes contributions toward the full participation and advancement of women in microbiology.
As a mentor, advocate, and role model, Dr. Handelsman has fostered the inclusion, development, and advancement of women in careers in microbiology. She is Co-Director of the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute at the University of Wisconsin, which she founded with Dr. Molly Carnes, and Director of the Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching. She co-chairs the National Academies Summer Institutes on Undergraduate Teaching in Biology and serves on the National Academies Committee on Women in Academic Science and Engineering. Dr. Handelsman studies the structure and function of microbial communities and the signals that govern them through the applications of metagenomics, genetics, and small molecule chemistry. In 2006, she was named a Mentor in the Life Sciences by the National Academies and received a Woman of Distinction Award from the YWCA. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Dr. Handelsman received her B.S. in Agronomy from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The Roche Diagnostics Alice C. Evans Award will be presented during the 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), June 1 – June 5, 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 43,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health and economic and environmental well-being.