IIGB/CEPCEB professor and chemist Yinsheng Wang is the first person at UC Riverside to receive the Biemann Medal, awarded by the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) to an individual early in his/her career in recognition of significant achievement in basic or applied mass spectrometry.

Wang received the medal and gave an award lecture earlier this month at the annual conference of the ASMS in Minneapolis, Minn. The medal is accompanied by a cash prize of $5,000.

Wang focuses his research on discovering the biological consequences of DNA damage and on unraveling mechanisms of action for anti-tumor drugs and environmental toxicants. His laboratory’s use and development of mass spectrometry, synthetic organic chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology enable us to understand, at the molecular level, how various DNA damage products are repaired, and how they perturb the efficiency and fidelity of the flow of genetic information during DNA replication and transcription.

Wang is the recipient of a 2005 Research Award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, as well as the inaugural Chemical Research in Toxicology Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society in 2012. He was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012.

The Biemann Medal was established by contributions from students, postdoctoral associates and friends to honor Klaus Biemann, a biochemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nominees for the award must be within the first 15 years of receiving the Ph.D. at the time of nomination.