BMSD Graduate student Justin Siegel, who works jointly with David Baker (Biochemistry) and Michael Gelb (Chemistry, adjunct in Biochemistry), has received the prestigious 2011 Weintraub Award for computational design of an enzyme catalyst for a stereoselective bimolecular Diels-Alder reaction [Siegel et al. (2010) Science 329, 309-313]. The award honors Harold Weintraub, a founding member of the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Siegel is one of 12 graduate students to earn this national distinction this year, and will participate in a symposium at the Hutch on May 6 with the other 11 awardees. See the full story in the University Week.
Siegel with the 2010 UW iGEM students
Siegel is not only a student and scientist, but a remarkable mentor who led groups of UW undergraduates in designing and carrying out a synthetic biology project for the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) competition. In both 2009 and 2010, his teams took home the gold medal. Last summer, his students were also awarded the prize for Best Health and Medicine Project in which they created an enzyme that shows potential for degrading anthrax spores. Read more in the UW Daily.
In honor of his accomplishments as a mentor and leader of the iGEM teams, Siegel was nominated by his students, David Baker, and the Department of Biochemistry for the UW Excellence in Teaching Award, given annually to only two Teaching Assistants university wide.
Siegel defended his thesis on “Computational Enzyme Design: Engineering Novel Enzymes and Carbon Fixation Pathways” to a packed audience of students and faculty on Wednesday, April 27. In a rare display of universal approbation, Siegel was applauded before as well as after his thesis talk.
Update as of September 7, 2011: Recently, a Science writer surfing our department website discovered the brief blurb above on the Weintraub Award, and wrote a charming piece for Science Careers entitled “A Father-and-Son Journey Into Synthetic Biology.” Justin, it turns out, is mentoring his iGEM undergraduates just as his dad, also an accomplished scientist then working at Applied Biosystems, had mentored him as a teenager: early, gently, and with faith in his creativity. Indeed, the iGEM projects — and his future research plans — are natural continuations of his dad’s fascination with rational enzyme design beginning as a graduate student in Physical Chemistry in the early 1970s. Still the generous parent and mentor, Science quotes Brock Siegel as saying “He’s now the teacher and we enjoy being colleagues.”