Angelika Amon obtained her B. A. with Honors from the University of Vienna in 1989. She conducted her PhD work in the laboratory of Dr. Kim Nasmyth at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. There she studied the molecular mechanisms that establish the ordered progression through the cell cycle. She obtained her PhD from the University of Vienna in 1993. After a year in Dr. Franz Klein’s lab at the Institute of Botany at the University of Vienna where she investigated the mechanisms of meiotic recombination, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Ruth Lehmann at the Whitehead Institute as Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow. In Dr. Lehmann’s lab, Dr Amon studied how germ cells are formed.

    In 1996 Dr. Amon accepted a position as a Whitehead Fellow. During her tenure as a Whitehead fellow, Dr. Amon’s laboratory investigated the mechanism of chromosome segregation in budding yeast. Specifically, her lab identified the protein that triggers chromosome segregation by inducing the degradation of a chromosome segregation inhibitor called Securin.

    In 1999, Dr. Amon joined the faculty of the Department of Biology and the Center for Cancer Research at MIT. In 2000, she was selected to become an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2002, Dr. Amon was promoted to Associate Professor and awarded tenure in 2004. At the Center for Cancer Research Dr. Amon, studies the molecular mechanisms governing mitotic and meiotic chromosome segregation. In particular, her lab deciphered the molecular mechanisms that control the final stages of mitosis and discovered the molecular mechanisms that generate the meiotic chromosome segregation pattern.

    In recognition of her contributions towards understanding the molecular mechanisms of mitotic and meiotic chromosome segregation Dr. Amon was awarded several prizes. In 1999 she was the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. In 2003 she was awarded the Alan T. Waterman award. This award is supported by the National Science Foundation and recognizes the most promising young researcher in any field of science or engineering. In the same year she also won the Eli Lilly and Company Research Award. The Eli Lilly Award is the American Society for Microbiology’s oldest and most prestigious prize and rewards fundamental research of unusual merit in microbiology or immunology by an individual on the threshold of his or her career. Dr. Amon is also the 2007 recipient of the ASBMB-Amgen Award, which is awarded to investigators for significant achievements in the application of biochemistry and molecular biology to the understanding of disease.