MU Professor Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry

It was a day to remember in Tiger Town. Yesterday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that George Smith, MU Curators Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences, had won the 2018 Nobel Prize in chemistry. He is the first MU professor to receive a Nobel Prize for research conducted at the university.

Together with a team of two others, Smith developed phage display – a technique that allows a virus that infects bacteria to evolve new proteins. Smith applied this to develop vaccines for challenging diseases, such as malaria.

“I am very conscious that I am far from alone in this recognition,” Smith said in a statement. “I am representing a whole array of people who created what was necessary for me to make this final little step — people who have shown the way for many imaginative applications.”

After Smith received the news that he had won the award, Pat Okker, dean of the college of arts and sciences, shared a tweet showing him celebrating true to form.