On Thursday, Sept. 1, at 3 pm, the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine will present the 15th annual Distinguished Mentor Award to John Donelson, professor emeritus of biochemistry. The ceremony will take place in the Prem Sahai Auditorium in the Medical Education and Research Facility.

A pioneer in molecular biology and a world leader in molecular parasitology, Donelson’s renowned career is all the more remarkable for his outstanding record of mentoring.

During his 37 years at the UI, most of Donelson’s trainees have gone on to prominent positions in academia and industry—many are leaders in molecular parasitology and molecular biology, thereby carrying on his legacy.

The ceremony will also feature the Distinguished Mentor Lecture by Thomas Cech, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder. Cech received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989 for his discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. He will present "Crawling out of the RNA World: Noncoding RNAs and their Protein Partners Mediate Chromosome End-Replication and Epigenetic Silencing".

A reception will follow the ceremony and lecture in the atrium adjoining the auditorium.

The Distinguished Mentor Award and Distinguished Mentor’s Lecture are made possible through a generous gift from Dr. Daryl Granner, '58 B.A., '62 M.S., '62 M.D., and Nancy Granner, '58 B.A. Dr. Granner is a distinguished alumnus and professor emeritus and founding director of the F.O.E. Diabetes Research Center in the Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Institute.