WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- The first woman to receive tenure in the MIT chemistry department has been named one of nine U.S. scientists to receive the National Medal of Science.
JoAnne Stubbe, 63, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., was among nine researchers, four inventors and one company lauded by President Barack Obama as the 2009 winners of the National Medals of Science, Technology and Innovation.
"These scientists, engineers, and inventors are national icons, embodying the very best of American ingenuity and inspiring a new generation of thinkers and innovators," Obama said in a statement Thursday.
Stubbe has spent the last four decades studying enzymes critical for DNA repair and replication, MIT said in a release Friday. Stubbe's work has led to a cancer drug, gemcitabine, used for pancreatic cancer and non-small-cell lung carcinomas.
Stubbe and the other recipients are to receive their awards Oct. 7 at the White House.
