News

Michael Snyder, PhD, of Stanford University is the recipient of the 2019 Genetics Society of America (GSA) George W. Beadle Award for developing and disseminating widely-used technology for the simultaneous analysis of thousands of genes, RNA molecules, and proteins. Beginning with studies of baker’s yeast and later expanding to humans, Snyder’s sharing of tools and…

Congratulations to the winners of the Editors’ Choice Awards for outstanding articles published in GENETICS in 2018! The journal’s Editorial Board considered a diverse range of articles, finding many papers worthy of recognition. After much deliberation, they settled on one exceptional article for each of the three award categories: molecular genetics, population genetics, and quantitative genetics. Check out…

The Victoria Finnerty Travel Award supports travel costs for undergraduates engaged in research to attend the Annual Drosophila Research Conference. Victoria Finnerty, who died in February 2011, was a long-time member of the Genetics Society of America and served the Drosophila community and the genetics community at large in many capacities. A wonderful geneticist, Vickie’s ground-breaking…

Daniel Hartl, PhD, of Harvard University is the recipient of the 2019 Genetics Society of America (GSA) Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal for his influential contributions to experimental and theoretical genetics research. His extraordinarily broad research program combines mathematical models with cutting-edge experimental techniques to tackle important questions in evolutionary biology and genomics. The Morgan Medal…

Bruce Weir, PhD, of the University of Washington in Seattle is the recipient of the 2019 Genetics Society of America (GSA) Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education, in recognition of his work training thousands of researchers in the rigorous use of statistical analysis methods for genetic and genomic data. The Jones Award recognizes…

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is excited to announce the latest cohort of student and postdoc leaders joining the Early Career Scientist Leadership Program. Participants receive training and mentoring and serve on committees charged with understanding the needs, interests, concerns, and challenges of early career scientist members of the GSA. As part of this…

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) has joined the Societies Consortium on Sexual Harassment in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine). The Societies Consortium aims to address sexual and gender-based harassment in science and advance professional and ethical conduct, climate, and culture in STEMM fields. “GSA works to advance the field of genetics, but…

Prize recognizes extraordinary creativity and ingenuity in genetics research. Joseph Heitman, MD, PhD of Duke University is the recipient of the 2019 Genetics Society of America (GSA) Edward Novitski Prize. Heitman is honored for his work on human fungal pathogens and for identifying the molecular targets of widely-used immunosuppressive drugs. The latter work proved to…

An analysis of the acknowledgment sections of theoretical population genetics papers from the 1970s and 1980s reveals overlooked contributions of women to the foundation of the field. Theoretical population genetics has a gender imbalance, and it’s easy to get the impression that it’s always been this way. After all, introductory genetics courses emphasize important concepts…

GSA is pleased to announce the recipients of the DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics for Spring 2019! Given twice a year to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, DeLill Nasser Awards support attendance at meetings and laboratory courses. The award is named in honor of DeLill Nasser, a long-time GSA supporter and National Science Foundation Program…

The gene Ade2 links metabolism and sleep in the fat bodies of Drosophila. All animals need to eat and sleep. In fact, these critical behaviors are intertwined: animals adjust their sleep needs based on food availability and energy storage. In a Featured article in G3, Yurgel et al. delved into the molecular mechanisms that connect…