Four highly promising professors in diverse fields, including our own CCGS faculty member Jason Lieb, have been awarded the 2008 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty. During his six years at Carolina, Lieb has achieved international status for his research investigating the accessibility of information encoded in genomic DNA sequence and how that accessibility affects gene expression. Jason’s research explores the relationships between chromatin, transcription factor targeting, and gene expression on a genomic scale. He has been an active member of Carolina’s genome initiative with his involvement in the planning and design of the new Genome Sciences building, establishment of the UNC High Throughput Sequencing Facility at UNC, and as director of an NHGRI ModENCODE consortium.
The Hettleman Prize, which carries a $5,000 stipend, recognizes the achievements of outstanding junior tenure-track faculty or recently tenured faculty. The award was established by Phillip Hettleman, who was born in 1899 and grew up in Goldsboro. He earned a scholarship to UNC, went to New York and in 1938 founded Hettleman & Co., a Wall Street investment firm. He established the award in 1986 and died later that year. Past CCGS recipients of the award include Wei Wang and Chuck Perou (2007).
Lieb will present an award lecture titled “The importance of an organized (cellular) library: How DNA packaging controls use of genetic information” on April 8, 2009 at the Carolina Club.