Anna Marie (Ann) Skalka is the recipient of the 2018 Sigma Xi William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement. The Procter prize has been awarded since 1950 to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to scientific research and has demonstrated an ability to communicate the significance of this research to scientists in other disciplines.
The prize consists of a bronze statue, commemorative certificate, and an award of $10,000 from which the Procter prize recipient receives a $5,000 honorarium and designates a younger colleague, usually in the same field of research, to receive a $5,000 award from Sigma Xi’s Grants-in-Aid of Research program. Presentation of the Procter prize is traditionally a principal event at Sigma Xi's Annual Meeting. The recipient is invited to give a lecture during the meeting.
Skalka is professor emerita and former W.W. Smith Chair in Cancer Research at the Institute for Cancer Research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, where she served as senior vice president for Basic Science from 1987 until 2008. She received a PhD degree in microbiology from New York University Medical School.
Skalka is internationally recognized for her contributions to our understanding of the biochemical mechanisms by which retroviruses (including the AIDS virus) replicate and insert their genetic material into the host genome. Skalka has published more than 240 scientific papers and scholarly reviews, edited several scientific books, and organized and spoke at national and international meetings and conferences. She is also author of Discovering Retroviruses, a recently released book for the science-interested public, and is coauthor of the widely acclaimed text, Principles of Virology.
In addition to service on numerous scientific advisory boards, Skalka has been deeply involved in state, national, and international advisory groups concerned with the broader, societal implications of scientific research, including the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research, which she chaired from 2008–2013. In recognition of her many accomplishments, she has been honored by election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Science, and the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Microbiology.