Randy Schekman

Dr. Randy Schekman is a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. As a graduate student he studied the enzymology of DNA replication with Arthur Kornberg at Stanford University.

His current interest is in cellular membranes, which he developed during a postdoctoral period with S.J. Singer at the University of California San Diego. He has won many awards, including the Gairdner International Award, the Albert Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research, and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with James Rothman and Thomas Südhof. Dr. Schekman served as the editor of the Annual Reviews of Cell and Developmental Biology and as editor-in-chief of eLife and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Schekman leads an effort with major philanthropic support to identify and fund basic research on the mechanisms of the initiation and progression of Parkinson’s disease.