The Packard Fellowships in Science and Engineering are among the nation’s largest nongovernmental fellowships, designed to allow maximum flexibility in how the funding is used. Packard Fellows are at the cutting edge of research into crucial issues like COVID-19 and climate change, and have gone on to receive the highest accolades, including Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics, the Fields Medal, the Alan T. Waterman Award, the Breakthrough Prize, the Kavli Prize, and elections to the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Notably, all three U.S. women who won the Nobel Prize in the past three years are Packard Fellows: Frances Arnold, Jennifer Doudna, and Andrea Ghez.
Professor Keriann Backus’ Research:
Protein interactions are at the core of nearly all cellular processes required for life. By developing and applying new high throughput methods to pinpoint the precisely where and when contacts occur, Backus’s group seeks to decipher the impact and therapeutic relevance of the millions of interactions occurring within every cell.
