Chemistry Alum Reuben Saunders Wins Hertz Thesis Prize for Mapping Gene Function in Living Tissues
The Hertz Thesis Prize recognizes fellows who publish exemplary doctoral theses with applications to real-world problems.
Reuben Saunders (SB ’16), was awarded the 2024 Hertz Thesis Prize by the Hertz Foundation for his research mapping gene function in living tissues. This work is detailed in his doctoral thesis, “Pooled genetic screens with rich readouts at scale and in vivo,”
Saunders, who also earned a M.Phil in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge as a Churchill Scholar, earned his PhD from the University of California, San Francisco as a Hertz Fellow in the lab of Jonathan Weissman (who is now a faculty member in the MIT Department of Biology and a Core Member of the Whitehead Institute). Saunders is currently a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows, where he collaborates with Weissman and Xiaowei Zhuang to develop technology for in vivo functional genomics.
Awarded annually, the prestigious Hertz Thesis Prize recognizes fellows with exemplary, transformative doctoral theses. Saunders joins more than 60 Hertz Fellows who have been previously recognized with the award.
