Salutes contributions by university researchers
The board of directors of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is introducing a new vehicle to spotlight bioscience achievement in Alabama. The HudsonAlpha Prize for Outstanding Innovation in Life Sciences will award $20,000 to a current faculty member or staff scientist at one of Alabama’s six research universities. “In addition to recognizing exceptional talent and research of superior merit,” noted Lonnie McMillian, chairman of the HudsonAlpha board, “the prize is intended to raise awareness of biotechnology’s burgeoning impact on the state’s economic vitality.”
Universities providing the pool of candidates include Alabama A & M University, Auburn University, The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, The University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of South Alabama.
Dr. Sam McManus, speaking for the board’s life sciences prize committee, added that the research university candidates must be nominated for the prize. “Each university president may qualify up to two candidates,” he said. “The board is particularly interested in life science innovations that reflect great promise for further development and benefit to mankind,” McManus commented. “Nominations recognizing efforts that are already delivering on that promise are especially welcome.”
HudsonAlpha President Jim Hudson has made it a priority to establish formal relationships with Alabama’s research universities. Hudson said, “Biotech innovations born on our university campuses are often a commercial product waiting to be developed. We want to facilitate the transformation of good ideas into products that enhance health and the quality of life and we all are winners if these products become new Alabama biotech companies.”
Nominations for the 2008 monetary prize and commemorative certificate are due to the HudsonAlpha Institute by February 15. Funding for the HudsonAlpha Prize for Outstanding Innovation in Life Sciences is provided through a grant by the Alpha Foundation.
The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, an independent, non-profit research organization funded by private and public sources, is located in Huntsville, Alabama. Its mission is to use biotechnology to improve human health, stimulate economic development and to inspire Alabama’s youth to seek careers in science.
Holly Ralston McClain
hmcclain@hudsonalpha.org
256.327.0425
The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama, is the cornerstone of the Cummings Research Park Biotechnology Campus. The campus hosts a synergistic cluster of biotechnology talent – science and business professionals – that promises collaborative innovation too turn knowledge and ideas into commercial products and services for improving human health and strengthening Alabama’s progressively diverse economy. The non-profit institute is housed in a state-of-the-art, 270,000 square-ft. facility strategically located in the nation’s second largest research park. HudsonAlpha has a three-fold mission of genomic research, economic development and educational outreach.
