The Texas A&M Local Section of the American Chemical Society and Texas A&M University Chemistry Department have awarded Wilfred A. van der Donk, the Richard E. Heckert Endowed Chair in Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the 2026 A. I. Scott Medal. The award recognizes excellence in biological chemistry research.
Wilfred A. van der Donk Credit:
Courtesy of Wilfred A. van der Donk
Van der Donk is a natural product biosynthesis researcher. He uses chemistry, enzymology, and molecular biology to better understand enzyme catalysis and applies that knowledge to synthetic biology. Recently, his laboratory has been studying enzymes used in the biosynthesis of phosphonate natural products, as well as ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides. He has coauthored more than 375 publications and has received a handful of awards, including a 2006 ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award and the 2025 Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry.
Texas A&M will host an award symposium on Oct. 30, where van der Donk will receive the gold medal and present his lecture, “Mode of Action of the Lethal Enterococcal Cytolysin,” alongside other lectures by Stavroula Hatzios of Yale University and Michael Freeman of the University of Minnesota.
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