Steven McKnight

Steven Lanier McKnight is a professor and former chair of the department of biochemistry at UT Southwestern. His research is in the area of transcriptional regulation.

Steven McKnight
Alma mater
Scientific career
Institutions

McKnight received his bachelor's degree from University of Texas in 1974 and his PhD from University of Virginia in 1977.[1] He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator from 1988 to 1992.[2]

Criticism

As president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McKnight published messages in the society's newsletter critical of young scientists, calling them "riff-raff" and saying that "The average scientist today is not of the quality of our predecessors”.[3] He complains that biomedical research now attracts researchers who “never would have survived as scientists in the 1960s and 1970s", and that the funding crisis can be attributed to the NIH review committees being “undoubtedly contaminated by riff-raff”.[4] The month prior, he had derided young scientists for being uninformed on the historic methods of biochemistry.[5] These opinions attracted media attention and criticism from many in the scientific community.[4] Future of Research, an advocacy group led by Jessica Polka that supports junior researchers satirised McKnight's comments by selling "Riff-raff" T-shirts, using the proceeds to fund the 2015 Future of Research conference.[6]

Awards

References
  1. "Steven McKnight, Ph.D. - Faculty Profile - UT Southwestern". profiles.utsouthwestern.edu. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  2. http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/mcknightlab/McKnightCV.pdf
  3. "President' s Message: The curse of committees and clubs". asbmb.org. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  4. Woolston, Chris (8 October 2014). "'Riff-raff' charge angers young researchers : Nature News & Comment". Nature. nature.com. doi:10.1038/nature.2014.16082. S2CID 183836120. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  5. "President' s Message: Down but not out". asbmb.org. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  6. "What well-dressed riffraff are wearing this season". Science | AAAS. 2015-05-11. Retrieved 2018-08-16.
  7. Welch Award 2020
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