According to a BrandeisNOW press release issued yesterday, Prof. James Haber (BIOL), the director of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, has been named the 2011 recipient of the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal for lifetime contributions in the field of genetics offered by the Genetics Society of America.The Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal was established in 1981 to honor Thomas Hunt Morgan, a geneticist whose research provided the first experimental evidence that chromosomes carry genetic information, according to the GSA website.

The website goes on to explain that Morgan also won the Nobel prize in 1933 for this kind of research. According to the website, "Morgan recognized that [fruit flies], which could be bred quickly and inexpensively, had large quantities of offspring and a short life cycle, would make an excellent organism for genetic studies."

The website further states that "Subsequent studies in his laboratory led to the discovery of recombination and the first genetic maps."

The awards website explains that the medal is administered to one person annualy. Past recipients have included Nobel laureates Barbara McClintock, who received the prize for genetic transposition, or the way in which genes influence physical characteristics, and Ed Lewis, who was awarded the Nobel prize for "discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development," according to the Nobel prize website.

According to the BrandeisNOW press release, R. Scott Hawley, president of the GSA, explained that the medal recognizes not only the entire history of a researcher's studies but also the record of the researcher's accomplishments as a mentor and the accomplishments of former students.

Haber, who received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, began teaching Biology at Brandeis in 1972.

Haber explained that his lab at Brandeis studies yeast genetics, which he explained in an interview with the Justice as the way in which "broken chromosomes inside cells get repaired and what bad things happen when they're not properly repaired."

While the lab focuses on studying yeast cells, much of its research can also be applied to cancerous cells.

Haber also praised the quality of the students he has taught over his years at the University.

"I've had really terrific both graduate students and post-doctoral fellows as well as a lot of undergrads who have worked in my lab."

He continued, "I've probably published . more than 10 papers with undergraduates as authors, and they are right now five undergrads doing research in my lab."

Moreover, he stated that one of his students last year was one of two authors in a paper published in Science, a prominent scientific journal.

When asked if he had anticipated receiving this award, Haber explained that he had not harbored any expectations.

"It was a really nice surprise," he said.

"It's a really great honor," Haber said of the award, adding that "the list of people who have won it before are the kind of people whose work I teach all the time, so it's really an honor to be among them.