From the Nominator

"This video entry captures Jennifer Doudna, a UC Berkeley biochemist, and others on campus as they react to the momentous news of Professor Doudna being awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of CRISPR-Cas9, a genome editing breakthrough that has revolutionized biomedicine. 

As director of broadcast communications, I planned and produced the video and supervised a freelance producer. We recorded Professor Doudna’s early reaction to the news at her home shortly after she received a call from the Nobel Prize Committee at 2:53 a.m., Oct. 7; her participation in a campus news conference; and her visit to the campus genomics institute she founded, where she was cheered by her students and staff. 

This major campus news was an important opportunity for our news team to maximize publicity about Professor Doudna’s revolutionary discovery and its far-reaching impact, as well as the role of UC Berkeley as the nation’s premiere public university in enabling and supporting groundbreaking science that leads to major, positive advances for the global greater good. The video also touted Berkeley’s 23rd Nobel Prize and its first female faculty member to win a Nobel. 

During the pandemic, with only a virtual news conference, the video gave the campus community and outside audiences a rare chance to see Professor Doudna on the day of her win. The video was viewed and shared widely via the office of communications and public affairs’ Berkeley News website and social media channels, generating huge excitement and campus pride, as well as widespread media coverage."

From the Judges

The video tells a compelling story and offers an engaging view of the human side of the professor’s and university’s work. We don’t often see this part of the story. Several members of the committee noted that this was one of the entries they wanted to see until the end.