Paul Ahlquist named Steenbock Professor of Microbiological Sciences
Paul Ahlquist, professor of plant pathology, is one of two UW-Madison professors selected to receive 2016 Steenbock Professorships. The second recipient is James B. Rawlings, professor of chemical and biological engineering.
Endowed more than 30 years ago by Evelyn Steenbock — wife of Harry Steenbock, an emeritus biochemistry professor — Steenbock Professorships provide a group of outstanding UW–Madison faculty with 10 years of financial support for their research programs.
Paul G. Ahlquist, the new Steenbock Professor of Microbiological Sciences, joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1984 after earning his doctorate in Madison in 1981.
A Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1997, Ahlquist discovered that some viruses manipulate the membranes of cells they infect to protect virus replication from the destructive machinery of the cell. His laboratory now studies HIV and viruses that cause human cancers, hoping to identify steps in virus replication that present weak points and opportunities for treatment.
Ahlquist, who has appointments in both oncology and plant pathology, is one of four lead scientists in the Morgridge Institute for Research, and has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1991.
Read the full UW-Madison news release here: http://news.wisc.edu/two-faculty-members-named-steenbock-professors-3/.