Australia’s only female Nobel Prize winner, Professor Elizabeth Blackburn was also named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2007.
They are honours well deserved in a distinguished science career that began at the University of Melbourne in the early 70s. Now a Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, Blackburn is a leader in the area of telomere research — a telomere is a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects it.
It was her co-discovery of the enzyme telomerase that won her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009. The enzyme’s identification is hailed as one of the most important discoveries in the field of molecular genetics because it finally allowed geneticists to understand the way chromosomes replicate.
The distinguished Nobel Prize is just one of many honours Blackburn has received, including Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991), the Royal Society of London (1992), the American Academy of Microbiology (1993), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000).
She is also a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1993), and was elected as a Member of the Institute of Medicine in 2000. She was awarded the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in Basic Medical Research (2006).
This person has made the short list for the title National Living Treasure, this title is conferred when someone accomplishes an outstanding achievement, swelling the country’s consciousness with admiration, pride and acknowledgement... be they scientists or sports stars; actors, artists or Indigenous activists; politicians, philanthropists or explorers, The National Trust’s 2012 nominees are a true cross section of our country’s finest.
Click here to see the full nomination list and vote for your favourite.
