News Release
September 26, 2007

Former UW postdoc fellow receives $500,000 MacArthur award

A former University of Wyoming postdoctoral fellow is one of 24 individuals named a 2007 MacArthur Fellow.

Cheryl Hayashi, who received a $500,000 award from the MacArthur Fellows Program, was a postdoctoral fellow in the UW College of Agriculture’s Department of Molecular Biology from 1996 to 2001. She researched spider silk in the laboratory of Professor Randy Lewis at UW, and that research has continued in her current job at the University of California, Riverside (UC-Riverside).

“Cheryl was one of the most talented and hardworking postdocs I’ve ever had,” Lewis said. “She was interested in how the different spider silks had evolved, and she used the molecular techniques we were developing to study that.”

Following her work here, Hayashi became an assistant professor of biology at UC-Riverside. She has since been promoted to associate professor.

She is continuing her research with spider silk, focusing on architecture, structure and function of silk produced by orb-weaving species. She’s also expanded her studies to include silks from other arthropods (such as caterpillars), non-silk proteins such as glues and comparative analysis of spider silk biomechanics, according to her biography on the MacArthur Fellows Program Web page (http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.1074781/k.D7EC/In_Focus.htm).

Her findings, along with those in the Randy Lewis laboratory, have the potential to influence the development of biomimetic material for a variety of applications, such as biodegradable fishing lines, medical sutures and protective body armor.

Hayashi received a B.S. (1988) from Yale University and a Ph.D. (1996) through a joint program with Yale University and the American Museum of Natural History. Her scientific articles have appeared in such journals as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, and the Journal of Experimental Biology.

All MacArthur Fellows were selected for their creativity, originality and potential to make important contributions in the future. Each received $500,000 to use how they want over the next five years.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution based in Chicago, Illinois. It is dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition. Through the support it provides, the foundation fosters the development of knowledge, nurtures individual creativity, strengthens institutions, helps improve public policy and provides information to the public, primarily through support for public interest media.

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