Irene Chen, the author of the prize-winning essay and a North American regional winner, was born in San Diego, California, to Chinese-American parents. She has had a fascination with science from a young age. As a high school senior, she won the Westinghouse Science Talent Search for research done under the direction of Carol MacLeod of the University of California, San Diego. She majored in chemistry at Harvard University, and as an undergraduate studied molecular recognition in the laboratory of Gregory Verdine. Dr. Chen stayed at Harvard to enter the M.D.-Ph.D. program. Under the mentorship of Jack Szostak, she investigated the biophysics of the origin of life -- work that was recognized with a 2005 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award. She is currently finishing medical school at Harvard and plans to continue to study molecules and evolution.
GE Healthcare, formerly Amersham Biosciences, and Science/AAAS have joined forces in creating the GE & Science Prize for Young Life Scientists. Since 1995, the aim of the prize has been to recognize outstanding Ph.D. graduate students from around the world and reward their research in the field of molecular biology. Both Science/AAAS and GE Healthcare believe that support of promising scientists at the beginning of their careers is critical for continued scientific progress. Each year, the grand prize winner receives a prize of US$25,000, while runners-up receive prizes of US$5,000. The staffs of both GE Healthcare and Science/AAAS salute the efforts of past winners and look forward to research findings from future entrants.