Phil Dawson, professor in the Department of Chemistry, has been awarded the 2025 Bruce Merrifield Award from the American Peptide Society (APS) for his contributions to the field of peptide science and research exemplifying a high level of scientific creativity.

The award is named after Robert Bruce Merrifield, an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1984 for the invention of solid phase peptide synthesis. Formerly named the Alan E. Pierce Award, it was established in 1997 by an endowment from Rao Makineni, a long-time supporter of peptide science and APS. Merrifield was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by Scripps Research in 1998—one of many such honors.

Dawson has led research that focuses on developing exquisitely chemoselective selective approaches to advance chemical access to proteins, nucleic acids and their conjugates—with the goal of introducing non-coded amino acids and other chemical groups into biological macromolecules. This could potentially reveal new insights into the molecules of life, and assist in discovering and manufacturing these molecules as therapeutics.

Dawson earned his doctorate degree at Scripps Research, before completing his postdoctoral work at Caltech, and returning to the institute as an assistant professor. He received an AB in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis.

He has published over 200 papers and received numerous honors, including the Max Bergmann Kreis gold medal, du Vigneaud Award from the APS, RSC MedImmune Protein and Peptide Science Award, and the Akabori Memorial Medal from the Japanese Peptide Society. He is also set to receive the ACS Cope Scholar Award in September 2024.

Dawson has served as president of APS, on the board of directors for FASEB, and cochaired the 22nd American Peptide Symposium and the GRC on Biology and Chemistry of Peptides.

The Bruce Merrifield Award comes with a $25,000 honorarium and will be presented to Dawson during the 29th American Peptide Symposium in San Diego from June 15-19, 2025.