Agilent announces award winner

Agilent (Santa Clara, California, USA) has announced the winner of the fourth annual Agilent Early Career Professor Award. Dr Anthony Mittermaier, associate professor of chemistry at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, will receive $50,000 every year for two years to support his research.

The award recognizes excellence in measurement research and establishes relationships between Agilent researchers and leading professors early in their careers, as well as helps to underscore Agilent’s role as a sponsor of university research. This year’s award focused on the field of structural biology using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). To be eligible for the award, a professor must make significant contributions to the subset of structural biology that uses NMR techniques to improve understanding of the molecular structure and function of nucleic acids or proteins.

Professor Mittermaier has used NMR spectroscopy in his research to develop an understanding of how the primary amino-acid sequence of a protein determines its dynamic properties. His work has also established links between structural mobility at the microscopic level and functional activity at the macroscopic level.

Professor R. Bruce Lennox, chair of McGill’s department of chemistry, commented, “We are delighted to learn that Agilent has selected our colleague Anthony Mittermaier for this prestigious award. Professor Mittermaier is a pioneer in recognizing the power of an integrated dynamic and thermodynamic approach to understanding protein behaviour. His combined NMR/calorimetry approach to sorting out the coupled protein folding/allostery problem is likely to find widespread application to many protein systems.”

Jack Wenstrand, director of university relations at Agilent, said, “This year, we were fortunate to have another group of impressive candidates. Our winner, Dr Anthony Mittermaier, has demonstrated the highest level of excellence and skill in structural biology, and we are looking forward to following his innovative research endeavours.”

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