Celebrating the Next Generation of Scientists and Bacon’s Law

At Amgen, we are committed to supporting the next generation of scientists and their work in drug discovery and development. With this in mind, it was a privilege to give the welcoming remarks for the 17th Annual Young Investigator Award Symposium (YIAS) held at Amgen’s headquarters in Thousand Oaks, CA. YIAS is an annual Amgen event showcasing rising talent in the academic community in the areas of organic synthesis, structural biology, and biologics. Award candidates are independent investigators no more than 6 years beyond postdoctoral training (i.e. pre-tenure) who have a primary research focus on one of the three areas of study listed above. Winners are selected by a committee of Amgen scientists based on their demonstrated and anticipated impact on their field. We are pleased to present the 2019 Amgen Young Investigator Award to the five outstanding early career faculty listed at the bottom of this post. Each of them will receive a $25,000 research grant to spend at their discretion. 

Year after year, we are deeply impressed by the YIAS recipients and the impact their research has already made to scientific discovery across multiple disciplines. Having been a professor at Caltech who made the leap to industry at Amgen, I more than ever recognize the vital work of researchers who are on the cutting edge of science and innovation that helps inform our work in developing the most needed medicines to treat serious disease. We are proud to note that four of the five awardees are originally from other countries but came to the US to carry out their pathbreaking work and develop their independent careers. It was also remarkable to me that I had an unexpected Kevin Bacon moment at YIAS (you may recall the concept that any two people in the world are connected to each other through a chain of six or fewer acquaintances; unfortunately, I’ve yet to connect myself to Kevin Bacon). Despite our different backgrounds, I found that I am separated from each YIAS recipient by only one mutual contact – in each case through one of their mentors. Our low “Bacon numbers” underscore how tightly we in the research community are bound together by our shared love for discovery and our common passion to drive science forward for the betterment of society.

Congratulations to this year’s award recipients, and I wish you the best of luck for a successful and exciting career ahead. #mycompany

Corinna Schindler, Ph.D., University of Michigan 

Maofu Liao, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School 

David Sarlah, Ph.D., University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign 

Andrew Kruse, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School 

Andy McNally, Ph.D., Colorado State University