by Bill Snyder
Angelika Amon, PhD, a pioneering cell and molecular biologist and winner of the 2018 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, died Oct. 29 from cancer. She was 53.
Dr. Amon was the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor of Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Her groundbreaking investigations of chromosome segregation during cell division have advanced understanding of how cancer may develop.
The Austrian native was the 13th recipient of the Vanderbilt Prize, which was established in 2006 to honor women scientists with a stellar record of research accomplishments who have made significant contributions to mentoring other women in science.
“Angelika will be remembered by so many for her brilliant mind and outstanding contributions to our understanding of cell proliferation,” said her colleague, Kathy Gould, PhD, the Louise B. McGavock Professor in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Department of Cell and Developmental Biology.
“Those of us who knew her will also remember that she was a force of nature with boundless energy and wide-ranging enthusiasms, a loud infectious laugh and sense of fun and immense generosity of spirit,” Gould said.
