2025 George Streisinger Award
2025 Award Winner: the Directors of the MBL Zebrafish Course
By Kate Whitlock
I remember lying on the lawn at the first Cold Spring Harbor Meeting on Zebrafish Development and Genetics in 1994 talking with Bill Trevarrow about the preponderance of sonic hedgehog talks…longing for more neurons. We were not to be disappointed: within four years the scientific community would respond to the interest and excitement about zebrafish as a model system with the 1998 “Neural Development and Genetics of the Zebrafish” course at the Marine Biological Labs (MBL) in Massachusetts, USA. With this course came the outpouring of resources on zebrafish: The Zebrafish Book (Westerfield 1993; now in its 5th edition), an embryonic staging series (Kimmel et al. 1995), establishment of the Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN, https://zfin.org/), followed by the Zebrafish International Resource Center (ZIRC, https://zebrafish.org), and the landmark 1996 special issue of Development (volume 123) describing the first large-scale forward genetic screen, and the mutants that resulted (Nusslein-Volhard, Driever and Bonhoeffer labs). During this burst of activity, the course flourished. To be more inclusive of the growing use of zebrafish in many areas of development and disease, it was renamed “Zebrafish Development and Genetics Course” in 2008.
At the recent International Zebrafish Conference at Madison, WI, the International Zebrafish Society (IZFS) awarded the thirteen Course Directors who served between 1998 and 2025 with the 2025 George Streisinger Award, recognizing their sustained and foundational work in opening new possibilities within the zebrafish field that benefit all of our research today.
The Zebrafish Development and Genetics course at MBL takes place over two weeks at at Woods Hole, and since 1998 has advanced the zebrafish field by training more than 400 students in established and emerging technologies, as well as providing the opportunity to participate in roundtable discussions, hear research lectures from experts from around the world, and establish collaborations and life-long friendships.
The course was first organized by Dr. Nancy Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (champion of women in science), and Dr. John Dowling, Harvard University (1998-2001). They were followed by Dr. William S. Talbot, Stanford University (2001-2004); Dr. Cecilia Moens, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (2002-2006); Dr. Mary Mullins, University of Pennsylvania (2005-2008); Dr. Chi-Bin Chien, (late) University of Utah (2007-2009); Dr. Dave Raible, University of Washington (2008-2012); Dr. Michael Granato, University of Pennsylvania (2010-2014); Dr. Corinne Houart, King's College London (2012-2017); Dr. Erez Raz, Institute of Cell Biology (2015-2017); Dr. Sharon Amacher, Ohio State University (2015-2020); Dr. Thomas Schilling, University of California Irvine (2022-2025), Dr. Deborah Yelon, University of California, San Diego (2018-2024).
Of course, the recipients were delighted with this recognition of their hard work and dedication to the dissemination of science to the next generation of zebrafish “afishionados”. And they were also quick to point out that the course could not have been run all these years without the help of course faculty, especially Andres Collazo and Jim Fadool, and staff: April Freeman, Caitlin Inglis and the many course managers that served over the years.
Many thanks to the course directors, faculty, staff, students, and the IZFS for contributing to our zebrafish community across the decades: Congratulations to ALL!!