ASPB member Sabeeha Merchant has been awarded the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal – a medal and prize of $20,000 awarded every three years for excellence in published research on marine or freshwater algae. The public announcement was made January 18 in a news release from NAS.

Dr. Merchant is a professor of biochemistry, department of chemistry and biochemistry and Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles. Merchant was chosen "for her pioneering discoveries in the assembly of metalloenzymes and the regulated biogenesis of major complexes of the photosynthetic apparatus in green algae." The medal was established by a bequest of Helen P. Smith in memory of her husband and has been presented since 1979.

The awards will be presented on April 23 at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., during the Academy's 143rd annual meeting.