McArdle faculty member and Professor of Medicine Richard B. Halberg recently received The John A. Boezi Memorial Alumnus Award from his alma mater Michigan State University (MSU).
The award, established in memory of Professor Boezi, is given annually to a degree recipient of the MSU Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology who has gone on “to a distinguished career” and reflects Boezi’s “uncompromising principles of integrity and performance.” Halberg completed his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at MSU in 1994.
Dr. Boezi, a faculty member at MSU from 1963 until his death in 1980, was an outstanding virologist and teacher who made important research contributions related to Marek’s disease virus and other herpesviruses. He played a “pivotal role in developing molecular biology as an important aspect of the Department.”
Professor Halberg joined the faculty at the at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009 after a productive postdoc in Dr. William F. Dove’s laboratory and stint as a Senior Scientist at Promega. At Wisconsin Professor Halberg has developed a successful research program designed to understand how potentially cancerous colorectal tumors initiate, grow, and progress to metastasis, with the goal of developing effective treatment strategies. A sought-after teacher and mentor, Halberg currently teaches the campus introductory course on oncology and co-directs the Jackson Laboratory’s workshop on mouse models of colorectal cancer. He has been instrumental in improving the animal research facilities at UW, which led to a UW Administrative Improvement Award in 2019.
Halberg, who also now serves as the Senior Director of all thirty-three research core services for the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, said the Boezi Alumnus Award is especially meaningful because he was nominated by his graduate school mentor Dr. Lee Kroos. “I am honored to be recognized in this way by MSU and by my graduate school mentor,” Halberg said. “Lee Kroos played a significant role in my development as a scientist. It is gratifying to have this occasion to thank him and others for the impact they have had on my career.”
As part of the memorial celebration, Halberg gave the John A. Boezi Memorial Alumnus Lecture “From spores to gore: Findings in the gut that shifted the longstanding paradigms in cancer biology and impacted clinical practice” and was later honored at an awards ceremony and banquet.