News

Graduate students Lu Han and Michael Mierzejewski were awarded the Elmer H. Stotz Graduate Fellowship in Biochemistry Award. This award was established by the Stotz family to honor Dr. Elmer Stotz, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Biochemistry. It is awarded to a Ph.D. student in Biochemistry.

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Alan Grossfield, was one of two professors who were awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award. Established in 2013, this award is given to an outstanding graduate student teacher for record of excellence in classroom instruction.

Dr. Eric Phizicky, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Dean’s Professor, was one of four professors awarded a Faculty Mentoring Award. Dr. Phizicky won the Mentoring of Academic Faculty Award.

Dr. Jeffrey Hayes, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics & Chair of the Department, was awarded the Shohei Koide Professor in Biochemistry and Biophysics. This is a new professorship, established in 2013, and is intended to support the Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

Congratulations to all of our winners!

Jeffrey J. Hayes, Ph.D., has been selected as chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. A faculty member for nearly two decades and the recently installed Shohei Koide Professor in Biochemistry and Biophysics, Hayes takes the reins after serving as interim chair since early 2012.

An accomplished and highly-respected scientist, Hayes' research focuses on chromatin, the combination of DNA and proteins that comprise the nucleus of a cell. His lab works to understand how the DNA within chromatin is accessed for replication and repair and used in gene expression - the conversion of genetic information into proteins that make up the body and perform most life functions.

Jeff is skilled at bringing people together for the common good and understands what it takes to create an environment that is conducive to great scientific research and education, said Lynne E. Maquat, Ph.D., director of the Center for RNA Biology and the J. Lowell Orbison Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics. He is organized, transparent and fair by nature and we are fortunate that he has agreed to take the helm.

Jeff has all the characteristics needed to be an effective chair and was the clear choice to lead the department after an excellent term as interim chair, said Mark B. Taubman, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry. I am confident that he will take what is already an extremely strong scientific department to an even higher level of excellence.