Randy Schekman, born on December 30, 1948, is a distinguished American cell biologist renowned for his contributions to the field of biochemistry and medicine. He serves as a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has made significant strides in understanding cell membrane vesicle trafficking.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Schekman has held prominent editorial positions, including editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and editor of the Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. His commitment to advancing scientific knowledge led him to become the editor of eLife in 2011, a prestigious open-access journal that launched in 2012, supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust.
In recognition of his groundbreaking research, Schekman was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. His pioneering work on cell membrane vesicle trafficking earned him the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2013, an honor he shared with fellow scientists James Rothman and Thomas C. Südhof.