Steve West elected to the National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences of the USA has elected Steve West, Group leader at the Crick's Clare Hall Laboratories, as a Foreign Associate for his contributions to the fields of DNA recombination and repair.

Steve's lab has been based at Clare Hall since 1985 and his research is focused on understanding the mechanisms by which DNA breaks are repaired by recombination, and how these processes contribute to the maintenance of genome stability and tumour avoidance.

When he was informed of the news, Steve said: "Being elected to the National Academy of Sciences is one of the greatest honours of my career: only in my wildest dreams did I think of achieving such international recognition. This is also a tribute to the dedication, commitment and superb work carried out by my post-docs and students over the past 30 years."

Paul Nurse, Director of the Francis Crick Institute, said: "Congratulations to Steve on his election to the US-based National Academy of Sciences as a Foreign Associate, a highly distinguished honour.  Steve is a world leader in the fields of genetic recombination and DNA repair and this accolade recognises his very major achievements in these areas."

Steve conducted his post-doctoral research with Paul Howard-Flanders in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University after studying biochemistry at Newcastle University. On his return to the UK in 1985 he set up a research group at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund's Clare Hall Laboratories (which became the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute in 2002 and the Francis Crick Institute in 2015).

In his career, Steve has received numerous awards for his work including election to the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the European Academy of Cancer Sciences. He was awarded the Genetics Medal in 2012 and the prestigious Louis-Jeantet Prize in 2007.

This year the National Academy elected 84 American scientists and 21 Foreign Associates from 14 different countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in research. Names were released on 3 May 2016.

Election to the National Academy is a rare event for scientists in the UK, and his election to the NAS is a wonderful recognition for his work at Cancer Research UK and the Francis Crick Institute.

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