JoAnne Stubbe to receive top science honor today
President Barack Obama will present MIT biochemist JoAnne Stubbe with a National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony this afternoon. Stubbe is receiving the nation's highest science honor for her work in understanding the mechanisms of enzymes that play an essential role in DNA replication and repair. The White House announced on Sept. 17 that Stubbe was among nine researchers selected to receive the award this year. "These scientists, engineers and inventors are national icons, embodying the very best of American ingenuity and inspiring a new generation of thinkers and innovators," Obama said in a statement when the awards were announced. "Their extraordinary achievements strengthen our nation every day — not just intellectually and technologically but also economically, by helping create new industries and opportunities that others before them could never have imagined." Stubbe's work unraveling the mechanisms of enzymes has had...