lightning strikes twice
if you've been paying any attention to the news recently, you might be aware that the nobel prizes are being awarded this week. if you've been paying extra special attention, you might know who the winners are. it seems that this year, lightning has struck stanford twice - andrew fire and roger kornberg recieved the prizes in medicine and chemistry, respectively. andy fire (& craig mello) won for the discovery of RNAi, whereby transcribed genes are silenced by double-stranded RNA. roger kornberg won for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription (his daddy, arthur kornberg (emeritus at stanford), won the nobel prize in medicine in 1959 for his discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). (incidentally, andy fire was one of my lecturers for principles of biotechniques ... and he DIDN'T talk about RNAi; we were all quite disappointed by this).
anyway, on tuesday, there was a celebration for andy fire after it was announced that he recieved the nobel prize. i couldn't make the celebration on tuesday due to journal club. today, there was a celebration for roger kornberg. the dean of the medical school (dean pizzo), the president of the university (hennessey), the head of the structural bio department (????? .... i should know, but alas, i don't), arthur and roger all gave speeches, which i will reiterate to all of you that couldn't be there.
dean pizzo: stanford is awesome. arthur is awesome for starting the research program here at the medical school. stanford medical school is more awesome than stanford university. yay roger.
hennessey: stanford is awesome. not only is arthur awesome for starting the research program here at the medical school, but stanford is awesome because we have the stanford linear accelerator center (SLAC). without slac, roger couldn't have done the work he did. yay roger. ps - we're going to be starting a huge research initiative next year (give us money, bitches!)!
structural bio dude: stanford is awesome. structural bio is awesome. i bow to your greatness, roger.
dean pizzo: now i get to introduce arthur. thanks for getting jiggy with your wife back in the day and knocking her up with roger. ha ha.
arthur: stanford is awesome. funding agencies are awesome (give us money, bitches!). cute story about his son (dad takes 8 year old son to lab for a day every once and a while. dad asks son what he wants for christmas. son replies: 'i want to spend a whole WEEK in lab!')
roger: holy crap, this is happening to me? all the people i have ever worked with are awesome. my teachers (nobel laureate paul berg among them) are awesome. i love you all.
dean pizzo: fooooooooood!
ps - roger kornberg's son is totally hot.
and that's how it went down, at least in my mind :).
anyway, on tuesday, there was a celebration for andy fire after it was announced that he recieved the nobel prize. i couldn't make the celebration on tuesday due to journal club. today, there was a celebration for roger kornberg. the dean of the medical school (dean pizzo), the president of the university (hennessey), the head of the structural bio department (????? .... i should know, but alas, i don't), arthur and roger all gave speeches, which i will reiterate to all of you that couldn't be there.
dean pizzo: stanford is awesome. arthur is awesome for starting the research program here at the medical school. stanford medical school is more awesome than stanford university. yay roger.
hennessey: stanford is awesome. not only is arthur awesome for starting the research program here at the medical school, but stanford is awesome because we have the stanford linear accelerator center (SLAC). without slac, roger couldn't have done the work he did. yay roger. ps - we're going to be starting a huge research initiative next year (give us money, bitches!)!
structural bio dude: stanford is awesome. structural bio is awesome. i bow to your greatness, roger.
dean pizzo: now i get to introduce arthur. thanks for getting jiggy with your wife back in the day and knocking her up with roger. ha ha.
arthur: stanford is awesome. funding agencies are awesome (give us money, bitches!). cute story about his son (dad takes 8 year old son to lab for a day every once and a while. dad asks son what he wants for christmas. son replies: 'i want to spend a whole WEEK in lab!')
roger: holy crap, this is happening to me? all the people i have ever worked with are awesome. my teachers (nobel laureate paul berg among them) are awesome. i love you all.
dean pizzo: fooooooooood!
ps - roger kornberg's son is totally hot.
and that's how it went down, at least in my mind :).