Welch Award Honors MIT Biochemist

Rich receives $300,000 award for more than
50 years of groundbreaking work

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 9, 2008 - For his pioneering work that has helped scientist unlock the mysteries of RNA and DNA, as well as for more than half a century of important scientific discoveries that have opened up new fields of science, Alexander Rich of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was today named the 38th recipient of the international Welch Award in Chemistry.

The Welch Foundation, based in Houston is one of the nation's oldest and largest sources of private funding for basic research in chemistry.  It will present the $300,000 award and gold medallion to Dr. Rich at the banquet in his honor in October.

"Much of what we know today about the structure and function of RNA is based on Dr. Rich's prolific findings in the lab.  These insights have given us a greater understanding of how the machinery of life works, and have begun to unlock the door to the prevention and treatment of disease," said Dennis Hendrix, chairman, The Welch Foundation.  "With more than five decades of life-enhancing scientific contributions, Dr. Rich typifies the sort of researcher and scientist that the Welch Award was created to honor."

Dr. Rich is the first MIT faculty member to receive the Welch Award, which is given annually to foster and encourage basic chemical research and to recognize, in a substantial manner, how chemical research benefits humankind as a whole.

"Dr. Rich is one of the towering intellects in science of the 20th and 21st centuries," said Dr. James L. Kinsey, chairman of the Welch Scientific Advisory Board.  "His numerous contributions have provided such important fundamental insights that virtually every important area of biochemistry of molecular biology today has Dr. Rich's fingerprints on it."

"I had the good fortune of beginning my research when it was still possible to ask fundamental questions about the nature of nucleic acids and how information is transferred in living systems.  Because of that, I was able to make some important discoveries, which has been exhilarating," said Dr. Rich, who serves as the William Thompson Sedgwick Professor of Biophysics at MIT.  "I am truly honored that my work is being recognized with the Welch Award, which is made more meaningful by the fact that I admire and so deeply respect the past recipients."

When Dr. Rich began his career in the early 1950s, DNA's double helix had been deciphered; however, very little was known about RNA until Dr. Rich discovered that RNA could produce a double helix.  He also discovered the first hybridization reaction.  This revelation produced a major paradigm shift in scientific thinking at the time.

Dr. Rich joined MIT in 1958, where he continued his trailblazing research.  He was the first to carry out DNA-RNA hybridization, which opened the door to understanding how information can be transferred from DNA to RNA; he discovered left-handed DNA, which has proven to be extremely important to biological systems and immunology in the ensuing years; he was responsible for first discovering DNA's presence in organelles, an effort which resulted in the development of an innovative research approach widely adopted by others, and gave rise to a large field of research in organelle DNA.  He also has provided many insights on the mechanism of protein synthesis.

In addition, Dr. Rich's ongoing work with nucleic acids and their role in the origins of life led him to participate in the biological experiments conducted on Mars during the Viking Mission in the 1970s.

Dr. Rich's current research is directed toward uncovering the biological roles of the left-handed helical form of DNA - called Z-DNA - which he discovered, and the proteins that bind to it.  These proteins are active in the immune system and are found in certain viruses, such as vaccinia, where they are essential for infectivity.  His work in this area has revealed a novel mechanism important to viral diseases such as smallpox, and offers the possibility of a therapy.  This field of science, examining proteins binding to the left-handed form of DNA, has been pioneered entirely by Dr. Rich and his colleagues.

He earned both his bachelor's degree (magna cum laude) and his medical degree (cum laude) from Harvard University.  He did his postdoctoral work at Caltech with Linus Pauling, who is considered one of the most influential chemists of the 20th century for his work in the fields of quantum chemistry, the structure of the matter and molecular biology. 

Dr. Rich has more than 600 publications to his name.  Among his other accomplishments and credentials, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Institute of Medicine, and a foreign member of both the French Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Among his several awards, President Bill Clinton recognized his outstanding scientific achievements with the National Medal of Science in 1995, and Dr. Rich also won the 2001 William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement.

In addition, Dr. Rich currently serves on the editorial board of Genomics and the Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics.

Since 1954, The Welch Foundation has provided more than $627 million in support for science through research grants, departmental grants, funding of academic chairs, an annual chemical conference, a summer scholar research program and a lecture series; as well as the annual Welch Award in Chemistry and the Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research, the latter of which recognizes an up-and-coming Texas chemist 40 years of age or younger.

For a list of previous Welch Award recipients, please click here.