Paul Nurse, Ph.D.

Monday, Sept. 25, 2006, 4 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.

Searle Center

Three of the ideas of biology are the gene theory, the theory of evolution by natural selection, and the proposal that the cell is the fundamental unit of all life. When considering the question “what is life,” these ideas come together because the special way cells reproduce provides the conditions by which natural selection takes place, which allows living organisms to evolve. A fourth idea is that the organization of chemistry within the cell provides explanations for life’s phenomena. A new idea is the nature of biological self-organization on which living cells and organisms process information and acquire specific forms.

Paul Nurse, Ph.D., who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, became President of The Rockefeller University in September 2003. He had previously served as chief executive of Cancer Research UK, the largest cancer research organization outside the United States. Dr. Nurse is noted for his discoveries about the molecular machinery that regulates the cell cycle, the process by which a cell copies its genetic material and then divides to form two cells.

 

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Nurse has received many other honors, including the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the Royal Society’s Wellcome, Royal and Copley medals. A fellow of the Royal Society, he is a founding member of the U.K. Academy of Medical Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was knighted in 1999 and received France’s Légion d’Honneur in 2002.