UC wins two Nobel Prizes

University of California professors have won both the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine and economics. Since 1934, 56 UC-affiliated faculty and researchers have won a total of 57 Nobel Prizes.

Elizabeth Blackburn, a UC San Francisco molecular biologist, is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for the discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that plays a key role in normal cell function, as well as in cell aging and most cancers. She shared the prize with Jack Szostak of Harvard Medical School and her former graduate student Carol Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Greider earned a bachelor's degree at UC Santa Barbara and a doctorate at UC Berkeley where she worked with Blackburn.

"The entire University of California community could not be more proud of Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn," said UC President Mark Yudof on hearing the announcement of her award on Oct. 5. "Her path-breaking work is yet another reminder of the life-changing contributions UC makes to California and to the world."

On Oct. 12, Oliver E. Williamson, an emeritus professor of economics at UC Berkeley, won the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Williamson is a pioneer in the multi-disciplinary field of transaction cost economics and one of the world's most cited economists.

"The entire UC community congratulates professor Oliver Williamson on this tremendous achievement," said Yudof. "The Nobel Prize in economics is a testament to the global significance of Williamson's work as well as to the contributions UC makes daily to the people of California and to the world. That this is the second Nobel Prize UC has been awarded within a week testifies to why the university is worth fighting for every day."

Williamson shares the prize with Elinor Ostrom, a professor at Indiana University. Ostrom earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in political science from UCLA.

For more information about UC Nobel laureates.