Joan A. Steitz ’63

Joan A. Steitz ’63 (Antioch College, BA) received the 2018 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The award honors Steitz “for four decades of leadership in biomedical science, including her discoveries in RNA biology and her service as a mentor to women in science.” The Lasker is sometimes referred to as the “American Nobel” as 87 former recipients of the award have gone on to win Nobel prizes. Steitz is currently Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.