Carl Woese, a former Microbiology professor who passed away in December 2012, is being honored for his influential discovery on a new domain of life. The Institute of Genomic Biology, IGB, will be renamed as the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.

Faculty senate members voted in favor of changing the name of the IGB to honor Woese at their Monday, Sept. 22 meeting.

“One of the reasons we wanted to name the Institute after Carl is to celebrate this transformative discovery, to celebrate his life as a scientist and to celebrate the past. The second reason is to claim the future. This discovery not only rewrote the textbooks, it planted the seeds for a new science called ‘metagenomics’” said Gene E. Robinson, the director for the Institute.

Aside from honoring Woese’s work, the name change will increase the IGB’s visibility nationally and reflect honor on the University, Robinson said.

“Carl Woese treaded a path littered with disappointments in some of the greatest minds of all time. By single-handedly determining where all living organisms fit on the tree of life, Woese has made it possible for us (and generations to come) to continue growing the tree that unites all life, a process being accelerated through genomics. I cannot think of a better honor for one of Illinois’ greatest champions of excellence,” Professor Isaac Cann wrote in an email.

Forty years ago, Woese made an influential discovery that changed the way scientists viewed what is called the “Tree of Life.” Originally, researchers agreed that the tree of life had two main domains.

Woese was given a microbe from a cow by a colleague from the College of Microbiology and his work in sequencing microbes has provided a further understanding in different fields such as medicine.

Beginning with an Illini cow, Woese was able to conclude that there is a new domain due to significant differences in comparison to the original two. Woese’s novel discoveries to the origin of genetic code, as well as to the origin of life, has greatly impacted the IGB as well as metagenomics, Robinson said.

In addition, Woese invented a new microscope, or the “genomic microscope,” in order to more effectively study similarities and differences in gene sequences.

“We hope that this name change will encourage students on this campus to learn more about the life and science of professor Carl Woese and how his legacy lives on through the exciting research that’s going on at the IGB,” Robinson said.

In addition, Woese was a founding IGB faculty member.

For the past seven years, IGB has maintained a structure devoted to addressing the big questions in biology by using a team based approach. With 10 teams, the IGB has focused on the integration of life sciences, social sciences and engineering, and paired it with genomic biology. These teams work on problems within the areas of health, energy and the environment, as well as food using genomic biology.

“Carl Woese is one of the most influential biologists in the world and one of the most influential biologist of the 20th century,” said Robinson.

Elyssa can be reached at [email protected].