Steven C. Beering Award

The Steven C. Beering Award honors an internationally recognized individual for outstanding research contributions to advancing biomedical or clinical science. The award is presented annually and consists of a memento and a prize of $25,000. Eight of the past Beering Award recipients have become Nobel laureates, either before or after receipt of this award.

Nomination Process

Nominations are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year. Nominations submitted by Nov. 18 will be considered for the next available prize.

Nominations should be accompanied by a summary statement emphasizing the most important academic accomplishment(s) of the nominee, importance to biomedical or clinical science and why you believe they are deserving of this honor.

Please include the following in the nomination packet:

Support letter that includes summary statement
Curriculum vitae
List of key publications

Nominate a candidate

Nominations for the next round of consideration for the Steven C. Beering Award are due Nov. 18. Nominations are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Submit a nomination

Maquat to speak at IU

Lynne E. Maquat, PhD, will speak about her research at a special lecture on Aug. 31, 2026. Return to this page as the date draws closer to register to attend the event.

2026 Beering Award Winner

Lynne E. Maquat, PhD

University of Rochester Medical Center
Rochester, New York

J. Lowell Orbison Endowed Chair and Professor, Departments of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Oncology, and Pediatrics
Founding director, University of Rochester Center for RNA Biology: From Genome to Therapeutics
Founding chair, University of Rochester Graduates Working in Science
Founding principal investigator, NIH NIGMS T32 in Cellular, Biochemical and Molecular Sciences
Co-director, New York State Center of Excellence in RNA Research and Therapeutics

About her research

Maquat's research focuses on the molecular basis of human diseases, with particular interest in mechanisms of mRNA decay. She discovered nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) in human diseases in 1981 and, subsequently, the exon-junction complex (EJC) and how the EJC marks mRNAs for a quality-control “pioneer” round of protein synthesis.

She also discovered Staufen-mediated mRNA decay, which mechanistically competes with NMD and, by so doing, new roles for short interspersed elements and long non-coding RNAs.

Additionally, she has defined a new mechanism by which microRNAs are degraded, thereby regulating mRNAs so as to promote the cell cycle.

One of her current interests focuses on the development of therapeutics for diseases that she has shown manifest hyperactivated NMD, including the most common single gene cause of intellectual disability and autism, Fragile X Syndrome.

Maquat is also well-known for her national and international efforts to promote women in science.

Professional activities

Elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2006)
Elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2006)
Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (2011)
Elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (2017)
Batsheva de Rothschild Fellow of the Israel Academy of Sciences & Humanities (2012-3)
Elected to the Council of Scientific Advisors for the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), an initiative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (2022).

Awards

William C. Rose Award, the American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (2014)
Canada Gairdner International Award (2015)
International RNA Society Lifetime Achievement Award in Service (2010) and in Science (2017)
FASEB Excellence in Science Award (2018)
Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science (2017)
Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences from Rockefeller University (2018)
International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Medal (2019)
Wolf Prize in Medicine from Isreal (2021)
Warren Alpert Foundation Prize from Harvard Medical School (2021)
Gruber Genetics Prize from the Gruber Foundation and Yale University (2023)
Dr. Paul Janssen Prize in Biomedical Research from Johnson & Johnson (2024)
Albany Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research from Albany Medical Center (2024)
Steven C. Beering Award from Indiana University School of Medicine (2026)

Past Winners

2025	Douglas C. Wallace, PhD Founder, field of mitochondrial molecular medicine; Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine; Director, Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute
2024	Robert C. Malenka, MD, PhD Founder, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute; Director, Nancy Pritzker Laboratory; Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford Medicine
2023	Stanley Crooke, MD, PhD Founder, Chairman and CEO, n-Lorem
2019	George R. Stark, PhD Cleveland Clinic
2018	George Church, PhD Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Founding Member, the Wyss Institute; Director, personalgenomes.org
2017	Michael J. Welsh, MD Director, Pappajohn Biomedical Institute, University of Iowa
2016	Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor, and Director, Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, Washington University, St. Louis
2015	Laurie H. Glimcher, MD Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean, Weill Cornell Medical College; Provost for Medical Affairs, Cornell University; author of “Stressed Out: A Novel Approach to Cancer Immunotherapy”
2014	William G Kaelin, Jr., MD Professor of Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School; author of “The Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor: Insights into Oxygen Sensing and Cancer”
2013	Roger J. Davis, PhD Professor of Molecular Medicine, and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School; author of “Metabolic Stress Responses”

Steven Beering on top of a building at the IU School of Medicine Indianapolis campus in the 1970s

About the Award's Namesake

Established in 1983, the Steven C. Beering Award honors its namesake's important contributions to the IU School of Medicine. Beering, MD, joined the IU School of Medicine faculty in 1969 as professor of medicine and assistant dean. He was named dean of the School of Medicine in 1974 — becoming the youngest person to serve in that post — and served as dean until 1983. While serving as dean, he also served as director of the IU Medical Center.

During his time at IU School of Medicine, he led efforts to establish the Indiana Statewide Medical Education System, creating community-based regional centers for medical education in Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary, Lafayette, Muncie, South Bend and Terre Haute. During his tenure, the number of endowed chairs at IU School of Medicine grew from three to 34.

Prior to joining IU School of Medicine, he served 12 years in the United States Air Force, where he was an adviser to the U.S. surgeon general in internal medicine and a medical consultant to NASA. He was a physician to the nation's earliest astronauts as well as to U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower.

After serving at IU School of Medicine, Beering became president of Purdue University, where he served from 1983 until his retirement in August 2000. After leaving Purdue, he served on and chaired the National Science Board, an organization that advised the president and U.S. Congress on national policy issues related to science, engineering research and engineering education. Beering was a four-time recipient of Indiana's Sagamore of the Wabash Award and was named a Living Legend by the Indiana Historical Society in 2013.

Blog: "Steven C. Beering: A guiding force in Indiana academia"