Plenary
© Nobel Media AB. Photo: A. Mahmoud
Prof. Thomas C. Südhof
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013 Avram Goldstein Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Department of Molecular & Cellular Physiology Stanford University School of Medicine
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Talk: My Path in Science From Cholesterol Metabolism to Neurotransmitter Release to Alzheimer's Disease
Honors and Awards
| 2023 | Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, University of Mendoza, Argentina |
| 2023 | Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| 2022 | Sherrington Prize Lecture Award, Oxford University, U.K. |
| 2020 | Doppler Lecture Award and Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, University of Miskolc, Hungary |
| 2016 | Grosses Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern der Bundesrepublik Deutschland |
| 2015 | Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan |
| 2014 | La Grande Médaille de la Ville de Paris (Échelon Vermeil; shared with James Rothman and Randy Schekman) |
| 2013 | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with James Rothman and Randy Schekman) |
| 2013 | Lasker~DeBakey Medical Basic Research Award (shared with Richard Scheller) |
| 2010 | Kavli Prize in Neuroscience (shared with James Rothman and Richard Scheller) |
| 2008 | Bernhard Katz Award, Biophysical Society (shared with Reinhard Jahn) |
| 2008 | Passano Foundation Award |
| 2004 | Ulf von Euler Lecture Award, Karolinska Institutet |
| 2004 | MetLife Award in Alzheimer’s Disease Research (shared with Roberto Malinow) |
| 2004 | Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience Research |
| 1997 | Roger Eckert Award Lecture, Göttingen |
| 1997 | U.S. National Academy Award in Molecular Biology (shared with Richard Scheller)h |
| 1994 | Wilhelm Feldberg Award |
| 1993 | W. Alden Spencer Award from Columbia University (shared with Richard Scheller) |
Biography
Thomas Südhof is renowned as one of the foremost molecular and cellular neuroscientists globally, currently serving as the Avram Goldstein Professor Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He holds professorships at the Department of Molecular & Cellular Physiology and Neurosurgery, and courtesy professorships at the Departments of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, and Psychiatry & Behavioral Science.
A native of Germany, Südhof completed his medical and doctoral studies in Göttingen before joining the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. There, as a postdoctoral fellow with Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein, his contributions to the analysis of cholesterol metabolism earned them the Nobel Prize in 1985. Remaining at UT Southwestern, he ascended to the faculty and became an HHMI Investigator in 1986, later chairing the Department of Neuroscience. In 2008, he transitioned to Stanford University, where he holds professorships in Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Psychiatry, and Neurology.
His recent focus lies in unraveling the complexities of Alzheimer’s disease. Leveraging human genetics, gene expression studies, and structural biology, Südhof’s work illuminates the role of pathological protein aggregation in neuronal damage, exacerbated by immune cells like microglia and astrocytes. Despite these insights, the gradual development of Alzheimer’s over decades, leading to impaired brain functions and neuronal death, remains enigmatic. In his talks, Südhof both acknowledges groundbreaking studies by others that have paved the way and discusses his own efforts to contribute to a deeper understanding of neuronal impairment in Alzheimer’s disease from a cell-biological perspective.
Abstract
As a scientist, I started my career in studies of cholesterol metabolism as a postdoctoral fellow in the Brown & Goldstein laboratory at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX. I only began to work in neuroscience after I had finished my postdoctoral training, focusing on neurotransmitter release in experiments that would later earn me a share of the 2013 Nobel Prize. I spent 25 fruitful years at UT Southwestern during a time at
which this university provided one of the most vibrant research environments in the country. I moved to Stanford 2008 to switch fields and environments and have concentrated on synapse formation in health and disease ever since. In my presentation, I would first like to introduce myself, then tell you about the work that led to the Nobel Prize, and finally discuss a project on Alzheimer’s disease as an example of the science that we are currently pursuing.
Dean Ah-Hyung "Alissa" Park
Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of Smueli School of Engineering
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
Talk: Creating a New Circular Carbon Economy and Clean Energy Transition via Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage
Biography
Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park is the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, with nearly 200 faculty members and more than 6,500 undergraduate and graduate students. Prior to beginning her role at UCLA on September 1, 2023, Park had been a faculty member at Columbia University in New York since 2007 where she served as the Lenfest Earth Institute Professor of Climate Change and the Director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy.
Park is a world-leading expert on the forms that carbon takes in both engineered and natural systems as humans transform them to extract energy or produce chemicals. Her research focuses on sustainable energy and materials conversion pathways with an emphasis on integrated Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technologies. She has made multifaceted contributions to various sustainable energy and environmental subjects, from novel materials for carbon capture to chemicals and fuels derived from renewable resources to create a new circular carbon economy.
She holds several patents and has received numerous professional awards and honors, including the Shell Thomas Baron Award in Fluid-Particle Systems and PSRI Lectureship Award from AIChE PTF, U.S. C3E Research Award, and NSF CAREER Award, among others. Park led key global and national discussions on CCUS, including the Mission Innovation Workshop in 2017, and is currently serving on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, Research and Development. Park is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), American Chemical Society (ACS), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).She holds several patents and has received numerous professional awards and honors, including the Shell Thomas Baron Award in Fluid-Particle Systems and PSRI Lectureship Award from AIChE PTF, U.S. C3E Research Award, and NSF CAREER Award, among others. Park led key global and national discussions on CCUS, including the Mission Innovation Workshop in 2017, and is currently serving on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, Research and Development. Park is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), American Chemical Society (ACS), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Born in Seoul, South Korea, and the daughter of an architectural engineer and an artist who loves chemistry, Park received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical and biological engineering from the University of British Columbia in Canada. She also earned a doctorate in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Ohio State University, from which she later received a distinguished alumni award for academic excellence in 2021.
Abstract
In order to meet the ever-increasing global energy demands while addressing climate change, the development of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies is one of the critical needs. In particular, there have been significant efforts to develop innovative CO2 capture materials and CO2 conversion technologies to create a new circular carbon economy based on renewable energy. The next-generation CO2 capture materials, which are often water-free or water-lean, have unique structural and chemical properties that allow their applications in a wide range of reactive separation systems. Nanoparticle Organic Hybrid Materials (NOHMs) are organic-inorganic hybrids that consist of a hard nanoparticle core functionalized with a molecular organic corona that possesses a high degree of chemical and physical tunability. It has recently been discovered that NOHMs have interesting electrolyte properties that allow the CO2 capture to be pulled by the in-situ CO2 conversion reactions. The development of these unique nanoscale hybrid materials will not only advance CO2 capture materials design but also introduce unique research opportunities in various sustainable energy and environmental fields. While pursuing CCUS technologies throughout our industries and beyond, we also need to rapidly achieve a clean energy transition to address climate change. This grand challenge requires enormous amounts of energy-related critical materials. In this talk, I will present the challenges and opportunities of different CO2 capture and conversion pathways including Negative Emission Technologies (e.g., Direct Air Capture) that can allow the development of a circular and even “negative” carbon economy, while integrating the recovery of critical materials from unconventional resources.
Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Noom
Saeju Jeong
Talk: A Lesson from Every Step on the Unicorn's Path
Biography
Saeju Jeong is the co-founder, Executive Chairman, and former CEO of Noom, the NYC-based leading digital health and wellness company founded in 2008 with a mission to help people everywhere live better lives through behavior change. Under Saeju’s leadership as CEO for 17 years, Saeju secured $657MM in investment from prominent firms including Sequoia Capital and Silver Lake, grew the business to unicorn status, led thousands of employees and impacted millions of lives globally.
In July 2023, Saeju transitioned to his current role of Executive Chairman, continuing to shape Noom’s vision and strategy. He was instrumental in an exhaustive process to transition the CEO role to Geoff Cook, and continues to develop the Noom business on the global stage. Saeju leads Noom’s delegation with the World Economic Forum, and serves on the Steering Committee for the Forum’s Healthy Workforces initiative. He was selected to the 2024 Class of Henry Crown Fellows, and his leadership has been recognized through multiple prestigious accolades, including EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year National Award in 2020, Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurial Company of the Year in 2022, Goldman Sachs’ Builders and Innovators Award in 2022, Inc.’s 500 Great Entrepreneurs in 2019. Saeju is actively involved in the global entrepreneurial community as an investor with major VC firms including Sequoia Capital and as co-founder and co-chair of Founders Global and United Korean Founders.
Born in South Korea to a family of esteemed doctors, Saeju Jeong’s aspiration to help people and be an innovator was inherent from a young age. He began his entrepreneurial journey by founding South Korea’s first-ever heavy metal e-commerce business. However, it was the passing of his father, a renowned doctor, that redirected the course of his life and profoundly influenced Saeju’s entrepreneurial and personal direction. It was his father’s reflection on his experience in healthcare that inspired Saeju to transform sick care into preventative care and dedicate his work to giving the gift of time to people’s lives through founding Noom.
Today, Noom is a central destination for holistic health, with four programs to effectively treat weight management, obesity care management, diabetes, and stress management. The Noom brand is a household name with success in publishing, with “The Noom Mindset” and “The Noom Kitchen” becoming overnight best sellers, as well as in media, with Saeju having been featured in top-tier media including “How I Built This,” “Masters of Scale,” and an eight-page brand interview in Inc.