FOUNDERS' DAY: Henry Daniell Wins Pegasus Professor Award

By Chad Binette April 7, 2004

Henry Daniell, a well-respected molecular biologist who founded a biotechnology company and helps to train high school science teachers, won the 2004 Pegasus Professor Award on Wednesday.

Daniell is the seventh winner of the annual award that is the most prestigious honor the university gives to a faculty member. The Pegasus Professor Award recognizes excellence in teaching, research and service.

“Dr. Daniell is the gold-standard by which all faculty should be compared; he is an extremely accomplished scientist and scholar, a model university leader and citizen, and an effective and compassionate teacher,” wrote Alexander Cole, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology.

Daniell received a statue of Pegasus, the UCF symbol, and a gold medallion engraved with a Pegasus logo and his name. He also received a check for $5,000.

A two-year member of the UCF Millionaires Club, which honors faculty members who bring in more than $1 million of research grants, Daniell recently was selected as a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences in Italy. The group’s members include Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Louis Pasteur.

Daniell, the first Trustee Chair in the life sciences, founded Chlorogen, the first biotechnology company established at UCF. He persuaded top companies to invest millions of dollars in Chlorogen’s efforts to grow therapeutic drugs in plants such as tobacco.

“It really feels good that the university is recognizing the accomplishments of faculty and students, and I’m pleased to be part of it,” Daniell said after the conclusion of the Founders’ Day ceremony in the Student Union.

 

Daniell arrived at UCF in 1998 after teaching for seven years at Auburn University. Since then, he has conducted “high-impact research” that reflects well on molecular biology, UCF and society, said M.J. Soileau, vice president for research.

Soileau praised Daniell for using chloroplast genetic engineering to take tobacco, a plant that doesn’t have a great reputation, and turning it into a substance that can produce antibiotics and other drugs to fight diseases.

Daniell is working with carrots, in addition to tobacco, to find ways to use plants to reduce the cost of providing drugs that fight cancer and other diseases.

“Most important are his contributions to human medicine, for which he has engineered transgenic plants that produce pharmaceuticals to treat cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hepatitis, as well as vaccines for anthrax, plague, cholera and other bioterrorism agents,” wrote Cole, the assistant professor who wrote a nomination letter. “He is currently developing an additional arm to his technology that will enable vaccines to be administered orally. This will conquer a major hurdle that has plagued scientists who develop vaccines: being able to deliver an effective inoculation to widespread communities. Imagine being able to eat a carrot or tomato that would vaccinate you against anthrax!”

Articles about Daniell’s research have been published in many prominent journals, including Scientific American, Nature Biotechnology and Science & Nature. This week, he learned that the National Academy of Sciences has accepted one of his papers about chloroplast genetic engineering for publication.

In her nomination letter, Dean Belinda McCarthy of the College of Health and Public Affairs praised Daniell for contributing to science education in the public schools by helping at school science fairs and developing continuing-education courses for science teachers.

Prior winners of the Pegasus Professor Award are education professor Chuck Dzuiban in 2000, history and foreign languages professor Jose Fernandez and optics professor Peter Delfyett in 2001, biology professor Llew Ehrhart in 2002 and School of Optics/CREOL/FPCE director Eric Van Stryland and anthropology professor Diane Chase in 2003.

This was the first year that UCF awarded the Pegasus Professor Award winner a medallion. President John Hitt presented medallions to the prior winner after he honored Daniell.

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