Eric Bakker, a professor in Auburn University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics, won the 2004 Roche Diagnostics Prize for Sensor Technology, according to a report in the Birmingham News (Ala.) this week. The award, presented to Bakker at a conference in Madrid, is awarded every two years to a scientist younger than 42 for outstanding achievements in chemical sensing and biosensing.
David U’Prichard, a venture partner with Apax Partners, and president of Druid Consulting, joins the board of directors of Invitrogen, the company announced last week. U’Prichard previously was CEO of 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals between 1999 and 2003, overseeing the company’s initial public offering and eventual acquisition by Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development. U’Prichard holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacology from the University of Glasgow and a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Kansas. U’Prichard is chairman of the board of Oxagen Limited (Oxford, UK) and is a director of various companies including Guilford Pharmaceuticals (Baltimore) and Lynx Therapeutics. U’Prichard replaces David McCarty, who leaves the board after serving for five years. Previously, McCarty was president and CEO of Novex and Alexon Biomedical.
Kota Talla, a senior from the Centennial Regional High School in Montreal, Quebec, won the grand prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair last week in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Kota, who also won the top Genome Quebec award last month, focused his project, “Cycling back to the origins” on the mapping of the eukaryotic mammalian origins of DNA replication. He took home some $7,500 in scholarship funds to help his college education.