Tilghman awarded genetics society medal

Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman, a world-renowned scholar and leader in the field of molecular biology, has been awarded the Genetics Society of America Medal. The award is presented annually by the society in recognition of a scientist's outstanding contributions in the field of genetics for the past 15 years. 

Tilghman was nominated for her pioneering work in epigenetics and imprinting, which has expanded the knowledge base about embryo development in mammals.

Before being named Princeton's president in 2001, Tilghman served as a faculty member at the University for 15 years. She came to Princeton in 1986 as the Howard A. Prior Professor of the Life Sciences. Two years later, she also joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an investigator. In 1998, she took on additional responsibilities as the founding director of Princeton's multi-disciplinary Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics.

A member of the National Research Council's committee that set the blueprint for the U.S. effort in the Human Genome Project, Tilghman also was one of the founding members of the National Advisory Council of the Human Genome Project Initiative for the National Institutes of Health.

She is renowned not only for her pioneering research, but for her national leadership on behalf of women in science and for promoting efforts to make the early careers of young scientists as meaningful and productive as possible.

The Genetics Society of America represents nearly 5,000 scientists and educators in the field of genetics.