Founded in 2001, the Sigler Prize is awarded to one or two graduating MB&B seniors who have demonstrated excellence in scholarship and research. This prize was founded in memory of Paul Sigler, who was a distinguished member of the faculty in the MB&B department. Paul Sigler was one of the world’s leading structural biologists on the mechanisms by which gene expression is controlled, transmembrane signaling is accomplished, and correct folding of proteins is assisted by chaperonins.
The 2024 Sigler prize winners are:
Tony Potchernikov: Tony was nominated by many MB&B faculty as being one of the most engaged and highest performing students in upper-level seminars. Tony was also a recipient of the prestigious Hahn scholarship, which offers students a paid summer research opportunity. Tony began his research career with Professor Enrique De La Cruz during his first year and was able to coauthor a paper on cytoskeleton remodeling in Nature Communications based on his work. Tony has a strong record of service at Yale, having been an Undergraduate Learning Assistant (ULA), an Academic Strategies mentor and STEM Navigator, and a First Year counselor (FroCo).
Lydia Tarekegn: Lydia has been an outstanding student in the classroom and the lab. She has been working for several years in the lab of Professor Caitlin Davis in the Chemistry Department, supported by Yale’s very competitive STARS II research program. Lydia is a coauthor on a paper on de novo lipogenesis in Chemical Communications and will be a coauthor on a second paper that should come out later in 2024. Lydia has presented her work at several national scientific meetings and was awarded a first-place prize for her poster presentation in the computation and biophysics category. Lydia is headed to graduate school in the fall to keep pursuing her research passions.
Written by Michael Koelle. Edited by Shravani Balaji