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News Release
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
NIGMS Director Berg receives chemical society’s public service award
Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D., director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), is a recipient of the 2011 Public Service Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS). The annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to public service or to the development of public policy that benefits the chemical sciences. NIGMS is part of the National Institutes of Health.
“I am very pleased that ACS is recognizing such an effective advocate for basic research who has worked to increase the visibility of chemistry at NIH. Dr. Berg’s contributions will be felt for years to come, as he has focused on developing and motivating the next generation of scientists,” said ACS President Nancy B. Jackson, Ph.D.
“ACS created its Public Service Award to recognize this kind of leadership, and it is fitting that Dr. Berg will be joining the list of distinguished recipients this year,” Jackson added.
Also receiving an award is Norman P. Neureiter, Ph.D., director of the Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Previous honorees include members of Congress, the Secretary of Energy and the director of the National Science Foundation.
This award is the highest for public service from the 161,000-member organization. The ACS presents the awards today at a Washington, D.C., event held in conjunction with the Council on Undergraduate Research.
Berg became the NIGMS director in Nov. 2003. He oversees a $2 billion budget that funds primarily basic research in the areas of cell biology, biophysics, genetics, developmental biology, pharmacology, physiology, biological chemistry, bioinformatics and computational biology. The institute supports more than 4,500 research grants — about 10 percent of the grants funded by NIH as a whole — as well as a substantial amount of research training and programs designed to increase the diversity of the biomedical and behavioral research workforce.
In Dec. 2010, Berg announced his intention to step down as NIGMS director at the end of June 2011.
Berg received B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemistry from Stanford University in 1980 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University in 1985.
For more on Berg, see http://www.nigms.nih.gov/About/Director/BioSketch.htm.
To arrange an interview with NIGMS Director Jeremy Berg, Ph.D., contact the NIGMS Office of Communications and Public Liaison at 301-496-7301 or info@nigms.nih.gov.
NIGMS is a part of NIH that supports basic research to increase our understanding of life processes and lay the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. For more information on the Institute's research and training programs, see http://www.nigms.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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