‘The Sydney Brenner Medal is given to honour the best in scholarship and personal achievements within a period of not more than 20 years after obtaining the Ph.D. degree (with allowance for career breaks). The award is given to an individual scholar in the field of molecular biology and related disciplines. Candidature is not restricted to members of the Academia Europaea, and in case of a non-member judged suitable to receive the award, the award will come with an invitation and induction into membership. Due to the nature of the Medal, posthumous nominations are not eligible. The Medallist will receive a Medal with an image of Sydney Brenner and a diploma, and she/he will deliver a Sydney Brenner Memorial Lecture.’

Eugene Yeo Ph.D. MBA is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), a founding member of the Institute for Genomic Medicine and member of the UCSD Stem Cell Program and Moores Cancer Center. Dr. Yeo has a BSc in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the UCSD Rady School of Management.

Dr. Yeo’s research interest is in understanding and manipulating RNA processing in development and disease using induced pluripotent stem cell and murine models. His lab demonstrated in vivo RNA targeting with CRISPR/Cas proteins with proof of concept in repeat expansion disorders. His lab developed enhanced CLIP for the purposes of large-scale mapping of protein-RNA interactions. His lab is an active participant in RNA genomics technology and therapeutics development.

Dr. Yeo is on the Editorial Boards of the journals Cell Reports and Cell Research. Dr. Yeo is a recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in recognition of his work in computational molecular biology (2011) and the inaugural Early Career Award from the International RNA Society (2017). Dr. Yeo was a recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Graduate Scholarship (2000), National Research Foundation Visiting Investigatorship Award (2017), a Blavatnik National Finalist (2018 & 2019) and Xconomy Award Winner for ‘Big Idea’ (2019). He is a co-founder of several biotech companies including Locana, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Enzerna and Proteona. He serves or has served on the scientific advisory boards of the Allen Institute of Immunology, Locana, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Proteona, Aquinnah, LGC, Nugen and Ribometrix.

Professor Yeo received the medal and delivered the Sydney Brenner Memorial Lecture, at the annual conference of the Academia Europaea, Munich, on 10 October 2023.

Balázs Zoltán Gulyás MAE, Chair of the Physiology and Neuroscience section of Academia Europaea, gave the laudation. He is Professor of Translational Neuroscience, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.