Microbiome pioneer Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has won the 2023 Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research.
The Asturias awards, among the most prestigious honors in the Spanish-speaking world, are presented annually in eight categories. The awards are designed to recognize exceptional scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian work performed at an international level and in so doing honor the “heritage of humanity.”
Gordon is being honored for spearheading the discovery and understanding of the human microbiome, the vast collection of microbes that live in and on the body and play essential roles in health. This year’s recipients in the other categories include Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep; celebrated author Haruki Murakami of Japan; and Olympic champion marathoner Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya.
Gordon, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology, shares the research award with two other scientists, Bonnie L. Bassler, PhD, of Princeton University, and Peter Greenberg, PhD, of the University of Washington in Seattle. All three are being recognized for their contributions to the understanding of the fundamental roles played by communities of microbes in life on Earth.