Alan Fersht is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. He enjoys combining methods and ideas of molecular and structural biology with those from biophysics and chemistry to study the structure, activity, stability and folding of proteins, and the role of protein misfolding and instability in cancer and disease.
Alan Fersht is a Fellow of the Royal Society, International Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Foreign Honorary Member of the American Philosophical Society, Foreign member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Member of EMBO and Member of Academia Europaea and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Other awards include the Copley Medal of the Royal Society (2020), The Royal Medal of the Royal Society (2008), the Gabor Medal of the Royal Society, 1991 (for Molecular Biology) and the Davy Medal of the Royal Society 1998 (for Chemistry); the Wilhelm Exner Medal (Austria) 2009; the Anfinsen (1999) and Stein and Moore (2001) awards of the Protein Society; the Bader Award of the American Chemical Society (2005), Linderstrøm-Lang Prize and Medal (2005), Bijvoet Medal (2008); the G N Lewis Medal (2008). Max Tishler Lecture and Prize, Harvard University, 1992; FEBS Datta Lecture and Medal, 1993; Jubilee Lecture and Harden Medal of the Biochemical Society, 1993; the Feldberg Foundation Prize 1996; Distinguished Service Award (for Protein Engineering), Miami Nature Biotechnology Winter Symposium, 1997; the FEBS Anniversary Prize, 1980; Novo Biotechnology Award, 1986; Charmian Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 1986 (for Enzymology); the Chaire Bruylants, 1999; Natural Products Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 1999.
He was knighted in 2003 for his work on protein science, and has honorary degrees from Uppsala, Brussels, and Aarhus Universities, the Weizmann Institute, Imperial College, and the Hebrew University. He has honorary professorships in Shanghai, Chengdu and Qingdao.
