WSU alum, Nobel Prize winner to be honored

PULLMAN – Irwin “Ernie” Rose, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, will be presented Washington State University’s highest alumni honor on Oct. 14.

Rose will be honored as 35th recipient of the WSU Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award during a public ceremony, beginning at noon, in WSU’s Compton Union Building junior ballroom.

In 2004, Rose, an enzymologist and emeritus researcher at the University of California, Irvine, and two Israeli researchers received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation…” This work became the basis for the development of drugs that combat cancer, cystic fibrosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rose, 79, Laguna Woods, Calif., moved to Spokane with his family at age 13. After graduating in 1943 from Spokane’s Lewis and Clark High School, he entered Washington State University.

During his studies at WSU, he was influenced by Herb Eastlick, a prominent WSU zoology teacher and mentor to many aspiring health care professionals, and Orlin Biddulph of WSU botany.

So he could prepare for a biochemistry career, Rose transferred from WSU to the University of Chicago, where he graduated and earned a doctoral degree in biochemistry.

His professional career started at the Yale University Medical School biochemistry faculty. Later, he joined the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia as a senior scientist. While there, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. In 1995, he retired from Fox Chase.

WSU Regents approved awarding the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award to Rose during their May 6, meeting. Established in 1962, the award honors alumni who have made a distinguished contribution to society or who, through personal achievement, have brought distinction to the university.