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Professor Dame Janet Thornton has enjoyed a distinguished career as a pioneer of the field of bioinformatics, vastly broadening the scope of traditional bioscience through applying computational methods to analyse biological data. Currently a research group leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), where she was Director from 2001 - 2015, Professor Dame Thornton has been the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Earlham Institute (EI) since 2017.
On winning the Biochemical Society Award, she said: “I am delighted to be chosen for this Biochemical Society Award for computational methods leading to advancing the understanding of biomolecular sciences.
“This is a real honour for me – and for all the people with whom I have worked. For me to see, to understand and to be inspired by the beauty of protein structures and their incredibly complex biology has been a real pleasure. To be recognised by the Biochemical Society adds much to that pleasure.”
The prestigious Biochemical Society Award is awarded once every two years, with candidates nominated by their peers and winners agreed by a panel of respected scientists spanning a range of disciplines. As part of the award, Professor Dame Thornton will deliver a lecture in 2021 along with nine other exceptional award and medal recipients.
In addition to her roles at the EBI and EI, Professor Dame Thornton is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation as well as the foreign association of the US National Academy of Sciences. Her various advisory roles also include being a Council Member of the Royal Society and the European Research Council.
Professor Neil Hall, Director of Earlham Institute, said: “This is well-deserved recognition for the significant contribution Professor Dame Thornton has made to this area of science. Alongside her research activity, she has also been a strong advocate, leader and mentor for others, which is borne out through her many affiliations and advisory roles. She is a fitting recipient of this prestigious award and I’m sure I speak for all at EI when I offer my congratulations.”
