Regents Professor of Biology Maggie Werner-Washburne to be Honored with 2011 Distinguished Scientist Award

Dr. Mag­gie Werner-Washburne to receive 2011 Dis­tin­guished Sci­en­tist Award from the Har­vard Foundation.

Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Regents Pro­fes­sor of Biol­ogy Dr. Mag­gie Werner-Washburne will be hon­ored with the 2011 Dis­tin­guished Sci­en­tist Award by the Har­vard Foun­da­tion dur­ing a lun­cheon on Fri­day, April 8 in Cam­bridge, Mass. The award rec­og­nizes inter­na­tion­ally noted sci­en­tists for their sci­en­tific achieve­ments and for pro­mot­ing and uphold­ing the stan­dards of sci­ences to improve and serve our diverse society.

The pre­sen­ta­tion pre­cedes the annual Har­vard Foun­da­tion Albert Ein­stein Sci­ence Con­fer­ence Advanc­ing Minori­ties and Women in Sci­ence, Engi­neer­ing, and Math­e­mat­ics. At the cer­e­mony, the Foun­da­tion will present Werner-Washburne with its spe­cial sci­ence award from the pres­i­dent of Har­vard Uni­ver­sity, the dean of Har­vard Col­lege and the direc­tor of the Har­vard Foun­da­tion, rec­og­niz­ing her ser­vice and schol­ar­ship in the sciences.

“I am quite hum­bled by this recog­ni­tion. It has been given to some extremely renowned sci­en­tists, includ­ing Nobel Lau­re­ates, and edu­ca­tors, includ­ing Jaime Escalante of “Stand and Deliver,” said Werner-Washburne. “It is my hope that this recog­ni­tion helps me focus on com­plet­ing the work that I began more than 20 years ago here at UNM and nation­ally to help stu­dents do great sci­ence, find their voices, use their imag­i­na­tions, and fol­low their hearts.”

Addi­tion­ally, Werner-Washburne will also attend Harvard’s annual Part­ners in Sci­ence pro­gram on Sat­ur­day, April 9 at the Har­vard Uni­ver­sity Sci­ence Cen­ter. For nearly 20 years, the Sci­ence Con­fer­ence has con­nected socioe­co­nom­i­cally and cul­tur­ally diverse groups of mid­dle school and high school stu­dents from Cam­bridge, Boston, and the met­ro­pol­i­tan area with Har­vard fac­ulty and col­lege stu­dent vol­un­teers study­ing applied, nat­ural, chem­i­cal, and bio­log­i­cal sciences.

Each year, about 150 vis­it­ing stu­dents from under-resourced com­mu­ni­ties are treated with excit­ing fac­ulty lec­tures and hands-on exper­i­ments aim­ing to engage them about the mar­vels of sci­ence, and to encour­age the pur­suit of sci­ence edu­ca­tion. The con­fer­ence is co-sponsored with a num­ber of Har­vard stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions that wish to advance Amer­i­can sci­ence through increased par­tic­i­pa­tion of a diverse group of Amer­i­can cit­i­zens, rep­re­sent­ing all cul­tural backgrounds.

“It took me many years to find my voice in sci­ence and I know my back­ground and path into the sci­ences still sur­prises some of my col­leagues,” said Werner-Washburne. “At UNM and nation­ally, I work with a rain­bow coali­tion of stu­dents to help them find the joy in their own cre­ativ­ity and abil­i­ties, under­stand what they have to bring to the table, and to know that they have a sig­nif­i­cant role to play now and in the future.

“Mak­ing diver­sity hap­pen and suc­ceed is tricky – every­one comes from a slightly dif­fer­ent place. But when it works, it leads to amaz­ing cre­ativ­ity. I think my research and the suc­cess of my stu­dents is a tes­ta­ment to the poten­tial of this approach.”

The Har­vard Foun­da­tion has rec­og­nized many hon­orary guests as well as sci­ence hon­orees over the years. A few of the Past Har­vard Foun­da­tion hon­orary guests have included United Nations Secretaries-General Javier Perez de Cuel­lar, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Kofi Annan; Mary Robin­son, Pres­i­dent of Ire­land; Arch­bishop Desmond M. Tutu of South Africa; R. C. Gor­man, artist; Nobel Lau­re­ates Elie Wiesel, John Hume, Jose Ramos Horta.

Past sci­ence hon­orees, the group Werner-Washburne will join, include: Dr. Shirley Ann Jack­son, then chair­man of the United States Nuclear Reg­u­la­tory Com­mis­sion (now pres­i­dent of Rens­se­laer Poly­tech­nic Insti­tute); Dr. David Ho, AIDS med­ical sci­ence researcher; Dr. Mae Jemi­son, astro­naut and chem­istry pro­fes­sor; Mr. Jaime Escalante, dis­tin­guished math­e­mat­ics teacher (of Stand and Deliver fame) to name a few.

“The Har­vard Foun­da­tion has been for­tu­nate to host dis­tin­guished guests from around the world each year,” said S. Allen Counter, direc­tor of the Har­vard Foun­da­tion and pro­fes­sor of Neurology/Neurophysiology at Har­vard Med­ical School in an invi­ta­tion let­ter to Werner-Washburne. “These indi­vid­u­als range from heads of state to out­stand­ing schol­ars, sci­en­tists, reli­gious lead­ers, artists, ath­letes, and oth­ers whose works and deeds have served to enhance the qual­ity of our lives. We firmly believe that your sci­en­tific achieve­ments and con­tri­bu­tions deserve spe­cial recognition.”

Werner-Washburne’s research has been funded con­tin­u­ously since 1989 through NSF, NIH, and col­lab­o­ra­tions with col­leagues at San­dia National Lab­o­ra­to­ries. She col­lab­o­rates with sci­en­tists and engi­neers in New Mex­ico, Europe, and Canada. Her lab­o­ra­tory pio­neered stud­ies the genomics of sta­tion­ary phase in yeast, pro­vid­ing insights into bio­log­i­cal processes from aging to stem cell biogenesis.

Werner-Washburne also runs the NIH-funded Ini­tia­tives to Max­i­mize Stu­dent Diver­sity (IMSD), which sup­ports five New Mex­ico grad­u­ate stu­dents and 20 under­grad­u­ate stu­dents at one time to do research and pre­pare for grad­u­ate school. Since 2004, when Werner-Washburne took over the pro­gram, IMSD stu­dents have co-authored almost 80 papers, with almost 120 stu­dent co-authors. In the past two years, 14 of 18 grad­u­at­ing seniors have gone or have been accepted to grad­u­ate pro­grams around the U.S. and at UNM. Since 2004, the IMSD pro­gram has pro­duced 20 minor­ity Ph.D.s and, this fall, will have more than 30 stu­dents from all over New Mex­ico in grad­u­ate schools from the Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton, Utah, UCLA, UCSD, Penn, UNM and elsewhere.

Werner-Washburne attrib­utes the suc­cess of her pro­grams to the com­bi­na­tion of build­ing a strong team within the pro­gram, cre­at­ing a cul­ture of suc­cess that sup­ports stu­dents, staff, and men­tors, and using guid­ing prin­ci­ples to help the stu­dents know how to deal with chal­lenges by: 1) know­ing their hearts, a prac­tice that is impor­tant through­out your life; 2) look­ing for the pos­i­tive in every chal­lenge – because it helps you move for­ward, under­stand how to learn from dif­fi­cul­ties, and use that under­stand­ing to help your­self and oth­ers; 3) embrac­ing all that they are and bring­ing it to the table, because each stu­dent rep­re­sents more than them­selves and they need to bring that depth of learn­ing and expe­ri­ence if they are going to be lead­ers; and 4) remem­ber­ing that sci­ence and life are like gym­nas­tics – every­one remem­bers the land­ing – so look back as you are leav­ing, thank those who have helped you, and honor what you have gained.

Dur­ing the course of her aca­d­e­mic career Werner-Washburne has earned numer­ous hon­ors and recog­ni­tion for her work in the bio­log­i­cal sci­ences and with her stu­dents. Some of the aca­d­e­mic awards and hon­ors include: 2010 Out­stand­ing Fac­ulty Award, Project for New Mex­ico Grad­u­ates of Color; Sarah Bell Brown Pubic Ser­vice Award, UNM (2010); EE Just Lec­turer from the Amer­i­can Soci­ety for Cell Biol­ogy (2005); Regents’ Pro­fes­sor, UNM, 2009; Andreoli-Woods Lec­turer, Cal State LA, 2007; Mujeres Valerosas award, His­panic Women’s Coun­cil (2006); Fel­low or the Amer­i­can Soci­ety for the Advance­ment of Sci­ence (2006); and the Soci­ety for the Advance­ment of Chicanos/Latinos and Native Amer­i­cans in the Sci­ences (SACNAS) Dis­tin­guished Sci­en­tist Award (2005).

Other awards include the Pres­i­den­tial Award for Excel­lence in Sci­ence, Math, and Engi­neer­ing Men­tor­ing from Pres­i­dent G.W. Bush, 2004; Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion for the Advance­ment of Sci­ence Out­stand­ing Latina Sci­en­tist 2003; Spe­cial ser­vice award, National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion, 1999; Out­stand­ing pro­gram offi­cer, BIO/National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion, 1999; UNM Regents’ Lec­turer, 1997–2000; UNM Alumni Fac­ulty Award for out­stand­ing teach­ing and ser­vice to stu­dents, 1995; and the Pres­i­den­tial Young Inves­ti­ga­tor Award from Pres­i­dent W. H. Bush, 1990–1996.

For more on Dr. Werner-Washburne and her lab, visit: Werner-Washburne and also Research Spot­light — Dr. Mag­gie Werner-Washburne

Media con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu