Biotech pioneer, New Yorker editor to be honored

Two Princeton graduates who are leaders in the fields of biotechnology and journalism have been selected for the University's 2002 top honors for alumni.

George Rathmann, chairman of Hyseq Inc., and David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, will receive their awards and deliver addresses on campus during Alumni Day activities on Saturday, Feb. 23.

Rathmann, who earned his Ph.D. in chemistry 1951, will receive the James Madison Medal. Named for the fourth president of the United States and the person many consider Princeton's first graduate student, the medal was established by the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni and is given each year to an alumnus or alumna of the Graduate School who has had a distinguished career, advanced the cause of graduate education or achieved an outstanding record of public service.

Remnick, who earned his A.B. in comparative literature from Princeton in 1981, has been chosen for the Woodrow Wilson Award. The honor is bestowed annually upon an undergraduate alumnus or alumna whose career embodies the call to duty in Wilson's famous speech, "Princeton in the Nation's Service." Also a Princeton graduate, Wilson served as president of the University and as president of the United States.

On Alumni Day, Rathmann will present a lecture titled "Biotechnology: State of the Industry, 2002" at 9:15 a.m. He will focus on the exceptional advances that have affected all human activity brought about by understanding the structure of DNA.

Remnick will speak on "Life at The New Yorker" at 10:30 a.m. He will share anecdotes from his nearly 10 years with the magazine as both the magazine and the country moved through significant changes in leadership and perspective.

Both lectures will be open to the public in Richardson Auditorium of Alexander Hall. For biographical information on the award winners, click here .

Contact: Marilyn Marks (609) 258-3601