Joan A. Steitz

Joan A. Steitz, Ph.D., Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, received the degree of doctor of science honoris causa from Rockefeller University in June. Steitz is best known for discovering and defining the function of small nuclear ribonucleoproteins, cellular complexes that play a key role in the splicing of pre-messenger RNA, the earliest product of DNA transcription.