McGill prof Dr. Nahum Sonenberg elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Distinguished McGill University researcher Dr. Nahum Sonenberg is among the newly elected Foreign Honorary Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2006.
Dr. Sonenberg, the sole Canadian among this year's honorary members, has long been recognized internationally for his enormous contribution to our understanding of molecular and cellular biology. His research, which has led to a better understanding of basic biologic processes in normal and cancer cells, is now playing a major role in the creation of new cancer treatments.
Among the 175 new fellows also named by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based academy are former United States presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; Supreme Court Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts; Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse; winners of the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, drama, music, investigative reporting and non-fiction; a former US poet laureate; and a member of the French Senate.
Dr. Sonenberg, 59, received his BSc and MSc (Microbiology and Immunology) from Tel Aviv University. Upon completing his PhD (Biochemistry) at the Weizmann Institute of Science, he joined the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology with a Chaim Weizmann postdoctoral fellowship. He joined McGill in 1979 and is today a James McGill Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and the McGill Cancer Centre. Dr. Sonenberg has a long-time interest in virology, particularly the study of poliovirus, rhinoviruses, HIV and HCV.
In 2002, Dr. Sonenberg was awarded the Robert L. Noble Prize by the National Cancer Institute of Canada. He is an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Distinguished Scientist, and has been a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 1992. Dr. Sonenberg was also awarded the 2005 Killam Prize for Health Sciences.
