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April 11, 2000
Contact: Tim Stephens (831) 459-2495; stephens@cats.ucsc.edu
UCSC biologists receives presidential award in White House ceremony
For Immediate Release
SANTA CRUZ, CA--Yishi Jin, an assistant professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is among a select group of young researchers to receive the 1999 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers who are in the early stages of establishing their independent research careers. Jin traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to accept the award in an April 12 White House ceremony.
Jin studies the genetics of nervous system development. Most of her research is based on experiments with a tiny roundworm, C. elegans, known to molecular biologists as "the worm." The worm's nervous system consists of 302 interconnected nerve cells. The human brain, in contrast, contains at least one trillion nerve cells.
"We have learned a lot about behavior from studying the human brain, but we know little about how its structure develops and how all the neural connections are made," Jin said. She has been identifying genes involved in creating the worm's relatively simple neural circuitry, and so far all of the genes she has found in the worm have turned out to have matching genes in humans and other organisms.
Jin was among 20 researchers supported by the National Science Foundation to receive the Presidential Early Career Award. A total of 60 award winners from nine participating federal agencies were honored this year. "We expect that these promising scientists and engineers will one day become the leaders of this nation's research and education community," said NSF director Rita Colwell.
This is the fourth year the Presidential Early Career Awards have been given. The Clinton administration established the awards in 1996 to recognize some of the nation's finest scientists and engineers and to maintain U.S. leadership across the frontiers of scientific research.
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Editor's notes: You may contact Yishi Jin at (831) 459-5721 or jin@biology.ucsc.edu.
A photo of Jin can be downloaded from the Web at http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/download/.
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April 11, 2000 Contact: Tim Stephens (831) 459-2495; stephens@cats.ucsc.edu UCSC biologists receives presidential award in White House ceremony For Immediate Release SANTA CRUZ, CA--Yishi Jin, an assistant professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is among a select group of young researchers to receive the 1999 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers who are in the early stages of establishing their independent research careers. Jin traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to accept the award in an April 12 White House ceremony. Jin studies the genetics of nervous system development. Most of her research is based on experiments with a tiny roundworm, C. elegans, known to molecular biologists as "the worm." The worm's nervous system consists of 302 interconnected nerve cells. The human brain, in contrast, contains at least one trillion nerve cells. "We have learned a lot about behavior from studying the human brain, but we know little about how its structure develops and how all the neural connections are made," Jin said. She has been identifying genes involved in creating the worm's relatively simple neural circuitry, and so far all of the genes she has found in the worm have turned out to have matching genes in humans and other organisms. Jin was among 20 researchers supported by the National Science Foundation to receive the Presidential Early Career Award. A total of 60 award winners from nine participating federal agencies were honored this year. "We expect that these promising scientists and engineers will one day become the leaders of this nation's research and education community," said NSF director Rita Colwell. This is the fourth year the Presidential Early Career Awards have been given. The Clinton administration established the awards in 1996 to recognize some of the nation's finest scientists and engineers and to maintain U.S. leadership across the frontiers of scientific research. ##### Editor's notes: You may contact Yishi Jin at (831) 459-5721 or jin@biology.ucsc.edu. A photo of Jin can be downloaded from the Web at http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/download/. Press Release Home \| Search Press Releases \| Press Release Archive \| Services for Journalists
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