Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna Will Receive the 2019 Welfare Betterment Prize

Jennifer Doudna, professor of chemistry and professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, has been selected to receive the 2019 Welfare Betterment Prize, a relatively new Hong Kong-based prize.

Founded in 2015 by Dr. Lui Che-woo, the international award is given for advancing world civilization and inspiring people to build a more harmonious world. The annual prize recognizes and honors an individual or organization contributing to sustainable development, the betterment of the welfare of humankind and the “promotion of positive life attitude and enhancement of positive energy,” according to the announcement.

Professor Doudna is being honored for her groundbreaking research in collaboration with Professor Emmanuelle Charpentier harnessing an ancient mechanism of bacterial immunity into a powerful and general technology for editing genomes, with wide-ranging implications across biology and medicine.

The prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Hong Kong this October. Professor Doudna will receive an award equivalent to about $2.56 million.

Dr. Doudna joined the faculty at the University of California Berkeley in 2002. Earlier, she had taught at Yale University. Professor Doudna is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California. She holds a Ph.D. in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology from Harvard Medical School.