2022 RNA Society Lifetime Service Award Winner
Posted on March 5, 2022

The RNA Society is delighted to announce the winner of the 2022 RNA Society Lifetime Service Award - Dr. Anna Marie Pyle

Dr. Anna Marie Pyle, the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology at Yale University and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is recognized for her outstanding contributions in serving the RNA Society over the last two decades. In addition to her successful research program focused on the structure and function of RNA and RNA remodeling enzymes, Anna has generously dedicated her time acting in a variety of roles for the Society, including co-organizing our Annual Meeting in 1998, 2015, and 2021. Anna has served in RNA Society leadership as Director (2003-2004) and, more recently in 2019-2020, as President of the organization. During her presidential term, Anna led the Society through unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, including cancellation of the annual meeting in Vancouver and transition to our first (and highly successful) virtual meeting. In addition, under Anna’s presidency, two new standing committees were established within the Society - one focused on expanding Fundraising & Development, and the another on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. In the last year, Anna, as Past-President, continued her long history of dedication to the Society in serving as Chair of an Awards Working Group that initiated the expansion of new awards targeting underrepresented scientists, mentors, and career researchers. For all of her efforts in strengthening the efforts and impact of the RNA Society, we recognize Anna Marie Pyle with the 2022 RNA Society Lifetime Service Award.

Dr. Pyle completed undergraduate studies at Princeton University, received her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1990 from Columbia University (with Professor Jacqueline Barton) and served as a postdoctoral fellow with Thomas Cech at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Dr. Pyle formed her own research group in 1992 in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University Medical Center. In 2002, she moved to Yale University, where her group currently studies RNA molecular recognition by small molecules and proteins. In addition to being Past-President of the RNA Society, Dr. Pyle is Vice-Chair of the Science and Technology Steering Committee for Brookhaven National Laboratory, serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences and is founder of RIGImmune Therapeutics. Dr. Pyle has authored of over 200 publications, mentored more than 50 graduate students and postdocs, and currently teaches the undergraduate molecular biology course at Yale.