Nick Goldman and Mikhail Savitski elected as EMBO members in recognition of their research excellence and scientific achievements
Nick Goldman (left) and Mikhail Savitski (right) have been newly elected as EMBO members.
Nick Goldman and Mikhail Savitski, group leaders at EMBL-EBI and EMBL Heidelberg respectively, have been elected as new members of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) for their outstanding achievements and research excellence in the life sciences.
With more than 2,000 members, EMBO gathers an outstanding community of top-notch scientists from Europe and across the world. EMBO members contribute to the realisation of EMBO programmes and activities, thereby shaping the trajectory of European science and supporting research communities across Europe.
Nick Goldman joined EMBL-EBI as a group leader in 2002 and has been an EMBL Senior Scientist since 2009. His research group develops mathematical, statistical, and computational tools to analyse the evolution of molecular sequences and uses the obtained information to infer evolutionary relationships between organisms.
“I’m very proud to have been elected to the EMBO membership,” said Goldman. “I think it’s a good recognition of the importance of computational methods, mathematical modelling, and bioinformatics as a whole in modern molecular biology. EMBL has been a fantastic institution to work for since I joined in 2002, and I am a great believer in the power of international collaborative research to further science and scientific careers. Now, as well as doing that with EMBL, I will also have the opportunity to be involved in EMBO’s work in this area, and I am really looking forward to that.”
Mikhail Savitski has been Team Leader and Head of the Proteomics Core Facility at EMBL since 2016. His research group develops and applies mass spectrometry-based methods to systematically profile protein biophysical properties, revealing insights into protein function and cellular phenotypes beyond traditional abundance measurements. These technologies have diverse applications in biology, including disease mechanisms and drug actions.
“I am incredibly honoured by the membership and look forward to contributing to this outstanding organisation,” said Savitski. “I have always been deeply impressed by EMBO’s support of young scientific talent as well as knowledge dissemination through support of world-class conferences and courses.”
In addition to Goldman and Savitski, Oliver Billker, Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, and a member of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, was also elected as an EMBO member this year. His research group focuses on malaria with the aim of developing new drugs and vaccines.
Every year new EMBO members are elected as a recognition of their high research quality and scientific contributions, thus constantly enriching the EMBO member community by bringing in new knowledge in emerging areas of life sciences. In 2024, this honour has been awarded to 120 scientists in Europe and around the world. These also include EMBL alumni Pedro Beltrao, ETH Zurich; Sebastian Glatt, Jagiellonian University, Krakow; Martin W. Hetzer, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST), Klosterneuburg; Martin Jínek, University of Zurich; Marko Kaksonen, University of Geneva; Isabel M Palacios, Queen Mary University of London; Jochen C. Rink, MPI für Multidisziplinäre Naturwissenschaften, Göttingen; and Joachim Wittbrodt, Centre for Organismal Studies (COS), Heidelberg.
