Randy Schekman, professor of molecular and cell biology

Randy Schekman is a professor of molecular and cell biology, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and, since 2006, Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). His current interest in cellular membranes developed during a postdoctoral period with S. J. Singer at the University of California, San Diego. At UC Berkeley, he developed a genetic and biochemical approach to the study of eukaryotic membrane traffic.

Among his awards are the Eli Lilly Award in microbiology and immunology, the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award in basic biomedical science, the Gairdner International Award, the Amgen Award of the Protein Society, the Albert Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University and the Dickson Prize in Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 1999, he was elected president of the American Society for Cell Biology and was appointed editor of the Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology.