Elizabeth Craig wins Hilldale Award

Photo of Elizabeth Craig

Craig has been a member of the faculty since 1979, and also served as chair of the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry from 1996-2002.

Her work on protein folding and proteins involved in that process led to her election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000. She was also selected to the American Academy of Microbiology.

During her career, Craig has been a leader in efforts to understand a class of proteins known as molecular chaperones. These proteins aid in the important processes of folding and translocation of newly synthesized proteins in all organisms. A number of genetic diseases, including Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Creutzfeldt Jacob diseases are caused by defects in protein folding.
She held the WARF (Elizabeth Cavert Miller) professorship from 1992-97 and the H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship from 1985-90.

Craig earned a bachelor’s degree in bacteriology at the University of Rhode Island and a doctorate in microbiology at the Washington University School of Medicine.