Dr. James Kadonaga

Biography

James Kadonaga is the Amylin Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of California, San Diego. He completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he conducted research under the guidance of Rick L. Danheiser, earning the Alpha Chi Sigma Prize from the American Institute of Chemists in 1980. He pursued his graduate studies at Harvard University with Jeremy R. Knowles, being recognized as a DuPont Fellow. Kadonaga's postdoctoral training took place in the laboratory of Robert Tjian at UC Berkeley, where he received several prestigious fellowships. In 1988, he joined the faculty at UCSD and became a Presidential Faculty Fellow appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992. His research contributions have earned him election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 2022, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the understanding of transcriptional regulation, chromatin dynamics, and the mechanisms that influence gene expression. Throughout his career, Kadonaga has received several awards for his outstanding research in the field of molecular biology.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards