Professor David Eisenberg has been named the 2025 Alexander Rich Medalist by the Department of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The Paul D. Boyer Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UCLA, Eisenberg is member of both the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, and the UCLA Department of Biological Chemistry, as well as a Principal Investigator and former Director of the UCLA-DOE Institute.

Eisenberg gave his Alexander Rich Lecture on March 4, 2025, at MIT, followed by a dinner that included the two sons of the late Professor Alex Rich, MIT Chemistry Department Chair Professor Amy Keating, and Alex Rich Lecture organizer Professor Shuguang Zhang.  Keating, a former postdoctoral fellow in Professor Ken Houk’s group, is pictured above presenting the medal to Eisenberg. 

Professor Alexander Rich (1924–2015) was a pioneering biochemist and molecular biologist at MIT, renowned for his groundbreaking work on the structure of DNA and RNA, which greatly advanced the understanding of molecular genetics. 

The Alexander Rich Medal, established in 2005, honors distinguished scientists with connections to Rich. Eisenberg’s work in biochemistry, particularly in the study of protein structure and function, closely parallels Rich’s. Both have made significant contributions to understanding the molecular mechanisms behind diseases related to protein misfolding, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Previous recipients include: Alexander Rich (2006), Robert Langer (2007), Paul Schimmel (2008), Greg Petsko (2009), Ned Seeman (2010), Alexander Varshavsky (2011), Ada Yonath (2012), Martin Egli (2013), Jean-Marie Lehn (2013), Sung-Hou Kim (2014), Martin Karplus (2015), Joel Sussman (2016), Jack Szostak (2017), David Julius (2018), Mario Capecchi (2019), Joan Steitz (2022), Jeremy Nathans (2023), and Richard Henderson (2024).

 

Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.