The Mary Ellen Jones Dissertation Prize

The Mary Ellen Jones Dissertation Prize is awarded to recognize the most distinguished dissertation in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry submitted during the academic year. Mary Ellen Jones received her Ph.D. from Yale’s Biochemistry Department in 1951 working in the lab of Joseph Fruton. She devoted her career to studying enzymes involved in amino acid and nucleic acid metabolism. Working in an era when it was difficult for women to advance she was frequently the pathbreaker, including serving as the first woman to chair a department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Medical School, where she spent most of her career. Mary Ellen Jones was the recipient of many prizes including the Graduate School’s Wilbur Cross Medal and election to the National Academy of Sciences. See here for a more detailed biography.

List of Recipients: