Whitehead’s Susan Lindquist elected to UK’s Royal Society

The UK’s Royal Society today announced that it has elected Whitehead Institute’s Susan Lindquist as a Foreign Member.

In its description of Lindquist’s scientific contributions, the Society wrote in part: “Susan Lindquist has transformed our understanding of how protein folding shapes biological systems. She has made ground-breaking contributions in genetics, cell biology and biochemistry, using organisms as diverse as fungi, fruit flies, mustard plants, and mammals.”

Announcing the results of its election, Royal Society President Sir Paul Nurse stated: “Without scientific knowledge, we might not be able to solve some of the greatest challenges of our time: food shortages, climate change and tackling diseases. The scientists elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society this year are leaders in their fields and have contributed much to the scientific endeavour. We are delighted to welcome them alongside the likes of great British scientists such as Newton, Boyle and Darwin.”

Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is the national academy of science in the UK and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. Foreign Members are elected for life through a peer review process on the basis of excellence in science. Lindquist is one of 10 Foreign Members elected to the Society this year and one of 165 current Foreign Members in total. She will be formally admitted to the Society at a formal ceremony in London in July.

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Susan Lindquist’s primary affiliation is with Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where her laboratory is located and all her research is conducted. She is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.