Virginia Cornish
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Virginia W. Cornish, PhD
| nationality = American
| workplaces = Columbia University
| alma_mater = Columbia University (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (post-doc)
| doctoral_advisor = Peter G. Schultz
| known_for = Chemical Biology, Genome Project-Write
}}
Virginia Wood Cornish is the Helena Rubinstein Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University.{{Cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/chemistry/groups/cornish/pages/Virginia_Cornish.html|title=Chemistry Group Directory|website=www.columbia.edu|access-date=2018-11-27}}
Background and education
Cornish received her BA in chemistry in 1991, working with professor Ronald Breslow. Her PhD research, on site-specific protein labeling{{Cite journal|last1=Cornish|first1=Virginia W.|last2=Hahn|first2=Klaus M.|last3=Schultz|first3=Peter G.|date=January 1996|title=Site-Specific Protein Modification Using a Ketone Handle|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=118|issue=34|pages=8150–8151|doi=10.1021/ja961216x|issn=0002-7863}} and mutagenesis, was carried out with Peter Schultz. Cornish was an NSF postdoctoral fellow{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/24/style/weddings-virginia-cornish-donald-rollock.html|title=WEDDINGS; Virginia Cornish, Donald Rollock|work=The New York Times |date=24 September 2000 |access-date=2018-11-27}} at MIT with Robert T. Sauer. She is the first female graduate from Columbia College to be hired to a full-time faculty position since the College became coeducational in 1983.{{Cite web|title=Columbia College Today|url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/win99/tempt_fr.html|access-date=2022-01-27|website=www.college.columbia.edu}}
Research
Cornish and her lab group use the tools of systems biology, synthetic biology, and DNA encoding to produce desired chemical products from specific organismic hosts. In 2016, she was part of a notable group of genomic scientists calling for increased ethical study and self-regulation as the costs and effort of creating de novo genomes plummeted. As the "read" phase of the Human Genome Project was completed in 2004, this new effort was dubbed Genome Project-Write.{{Cite journal|last1=Boeke|first1=Jef D.|last2=Church|first2=George|last3=Hessel|first3=Andrew|last4=Kelley|first4=Nancy J.|last5=Arkin|first5=Adam|last6=Cai|first6=Yizhi|last7=Carlson|first7=Rob|last8=Chakravarti|first8=Aravinda|last9=Cornish|first9=Virginia W.|date=2016-07-08|title=The Genome Project-Write|journal=Science|volume=353|issue=6295|pages=126–127|doi=10.1126/science.aaf6850|issn=0036-8075|pmid=27256881|bibcode=2016Sci...353..126B|s2cid=206649424}}
Awards
- 2009 – Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry
- 2009 – Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award{{Cite web|url=https://www.proteinsociety.org/page/protein-society-awards|title=The Protein Society : Protein Society Awards|website=www.proteinsociety.org|access-date=2018-11-27}}
- 2003 – Sloan Foundation Fellow
References
{{reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornish, Virginia}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:American women chemists
Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni
Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni