The Bruce Stone Award was presented to Prof. Harry Brumer by Prof. Vincent Bulone, a previous recipient of the award and a long-time colleague and friend of Prof. Brumer, at the International Carbohydrate Symposium in New Orleans on July 19th, 2016. Prof. Harry Brumer was chosen by the B.A. Stone Award Selection Committee for his outstanding contribution to plant cell wall research.
In particular the committee drew attention to Prof. Brumer’s “outstanding work at both the biosynthetic and degradative levels. He is one of the very few people in the field that spans both these major themes in plant polysaccharides, and in addition he is developing the industrial application of these glycans”.
It was also noted that Prof. Brumer “promotes the field brilliantly. The GRC meeting on plant cell wall degradation (Cellulosomes, cellulases and other plant cell wall degrading enzymes) in 2013 was extraordinarily successful and has really reinvigorated the field. As a speaker he is in heavy demand as his presentations are outstanding; interesting, brilliant introductions and full of incisive data”.
Lastly the committee cited Prof. Brumer’s commitment to the CAZy database - “Prof. Brumer has put into action Bruce’s vision with respect to providing a fuller analysis of CAZy families than the current CAZy database. CAZypedia has been an essential website for anyone interested in CAZymes. Prof. Brumer is one of the founders and the chief editor of the database.”
Megazyme have sponsored this award since its inception in 2008. The awardee receives the B. A. Stone medal engraved with their name and an honorarium to the value of $2000.