Chaitan Khosla, a 34-year-old Stanford University professor of chemical engineering and chemistry whose work is leading to the discovery of new drugs to fight infections and diseases has received the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s most prestigious prize (Alan T. Waterman Award) for young researchers. Khosla's work in elucidating the genes involved in the microbial production of polyketides, and methods for modifying these genes, "has captured the attention of the entire pharmaceutical industry as an exciting new approach for the production of new antimicrobial agents from engineered organisms," said 1988 Waterman Award winner and University of California-Berkeley professor of chemistry Peter G. Schultz. Khosla's "creativity, productivity and intellect are defining the forefront of his field and opening a whole new opportunity at the interface of chemistry, biology and chemical engineering," Schultz added.
A current NSF grantee, Khosla received his first federal research grant from what is now the NSF Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Systems in 1992, and was named an NSF Young Investigator in 1994.
