Evelyn Witkin, 94 Years Old, Wins the Lasker Basic Medical Research Award

Evelyn M. Witkin, professor emerita at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, has been selected to share the 2015 Lasker Basic Medical Research Award from the Lasker Foundation. The award, considered one of the most prestigious in medicine, recognizes “the contributions of scientists, physicians, and public servants who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of human disease.”

Dr. Witkin, who is now 94 years old, is being honored for her work in creating the field of DNA mutagenesis and DNA repair which have played an important role in clinical radiation therapy for cancer. Dr. Witkin will share the $250,000 prize with Stephen J. Elledge of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. They will receive the award at a ceremony in New York on September 18.

Dr. Witkin taught at Rutgers University from 1971 to 1991. She is a graduate of New York University and holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.