Sept. 17, 2003

Contact: Sue Mohr or Terrie Lindholm, Department of Chemistry, (785) 864-4670.

Scripps Research Institute president to give inaugural Schowen lecture

LAWRENCE -- Richard Lerner, a professor of molecular biology and president of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., will give the inaugural lecture of the Richard L. Schowen Lectureship in Bioorganic Chemistry at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, in 130 Budig Hall at the University of Kansas.

Lerner will speak about "Antibodies and Ozone." The lecture will be free and open to the public.

Lerner perhaps is best known for his groundbreaking research on the conversion of antibodies into enzymes. A distinguished researcher, winner of dozens of awards and member of many scientific academies and boards, Lerner was the California scientist of the year in 1996 and leads the Scripps Research Institute, the largest private, nonprofit biomedical research organization in the United States. Lerner graduated from Northwestern University and Stanford Medical School. He interned at Palo Alto Stanford Hospital and received postdoctoral training at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in experimental pathology. Since 1970 he has held staff appointments at Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic (renamed the Scripps Research Institute) in La Jolla. He served as chair of the institute's Department of Molecular Biology from 1982 to 1986 prior to assuming the presidency of the organization.

The Schowen lecture is funded by former students, colleagues and friends of Richard L. Schowen, who retired in July 2000 after 37 years of teaching chemistry at KU. Schowen's career spanned a broad range of expertise in the chemical, biological and pharmaceutical sciences. His numerous awards include the Summerfield distinguished chair in chemistry, the Midwest Award of the American Chemical Society and an honorary doctorate from Martin Luther University in Germany.