V23I1 Special

10 Professor Jennifer A Doudna is a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, where she holds the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences, and is an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Pomona College and a PhD from Harvard University. Professor Doudna has been a leading figure in what is often referred to as the “CRISPR Revolution” and she is renowned for pioneering a simple way of editing the DNA of any organism using an RNA-guided protein found in bacteria. Professor Doudna is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, and has received many other honours including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Heineken Prize, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award and the Japan Prize. The University of Hong Kong (HKU) conferred an honorary degree on Professor Jennifer Doudna at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine session of the 198th Congregation held on December 17, 2017. Professor Michael Wilkinson, the Public Orator of the University, wrote and delivered the citation for Professor Doudna, and Professor Doudna delivered an acceptance speech to the HKU Medicine graduates of the Class of 2017. The following is the citation by Professor Wilkinson, followed by the acceptance speech of Professor Doudna. Mr President: Dr Jennifer Doudna is a world-renowned scientist whose cutting edge research has led her to the discovery of “CRISPR”, an important tool which allows for and facilitates the “cutting and pasting” of genes. Her remarkable discovery has revolutionized and simplified gene editing. Jennifer is presently Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Berkeley, California and holds the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Professorship in Biomedical and Health Sciences. Jennifer was born in Washington DC but, when she was 7 years of age, her parents moved to Hawaii where her father taught American literature at the University of Hawaii. Growing up in such a beautiful environment with its rain forests and exotic plants and animals, she soon acquired a burning sense of SPEECH BY PROFESSOR JENN I FER A DOUDNA Honorary Graduate and Guest of Honour