Evolutionary biologist Nancy Moran, a professor in the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, has been chosen as the inaugural winner of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution's Lifetime Contribution Award.
The award "is intended for outstanding senior members of the SMBE community" who have "a record of truly outstanding research that has contributed broadly to the field of Molecular Biology and Evolution," according to the society.
Moran, who joined the faculty of UT Austin in 2013, is the Leslie Surginer Endowed Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology. Her research focuses on genome evolution in microorganisms that live within a host, especially the bacteria that form symbiotic relationships with insects, such as aphids and honeybees. She also studies the impact that these symbioses can have on biological diversity, ecology and the health of the host.
Among her many accomplishments, Moran has been elected a Member of the National Academy of Science, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has also been awarded the International Prize for Biology, the James Tiedje Award for lifetime contribution in Microbial Ecology and a MacArthur Fellowship.
Moran will be presented the award at the annual SMBE conference in Australia, July 3-7, 2016. The SMBE is "an international organization whose goals are to provide facilities for association and communication among molecular evolutionists and to further the goals of molecular evolution." The society produces two peer-reviewed journals, Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genome Biology and Evolution.
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