Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, was named the Nobel Prize winner

Elizabeth (Liz) Helen Blackburn was born November 26, 1948 in Hobart Tasmania. She is biologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), who studies the telomere, a structure at the end of chromosomes which protects the chromosome. She co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere.
Throughout her career, Blackburn has been honored by her peers as the recipient of many prestigious awards. She was elected President of the American Society for Cell Biology for the year 1998. Blackburn is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991), the Royal Society of London (1992), the American Academy of Microbiology (1993), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000).
Elizabeth Blackburn along with two other US scientists - Carol Greider and Jack Szostak, received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their chromosome research.
The discovery determined how chromosomes can be "copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation," according to the citation.
The award includes a $1.5 million prize, a diploma and an invitation to the prize ceremonies in Stockholm on Dec. 10.