U of G scientist wins Benjamin Franklin Medal

Dr. Paul Hebert in a photo from the University of Guelph.

An evolutionary biologist at the University of Guelph has won the 2024 Benjamin Franklin Medal for Earth and Environmental Science.

Dr. Paul Hebert received the recognition for his work in DNA barcoding. The technology uses tiny segments of DNA to identify species, which the university says is similar to the “way a barcode identifies a product at a supermarket.”

DNA barcoding is helping in the global effort to catalogue life on Earth, but also has more everyday applications: detecting food fraud, pest and disease control, as well as conservation programs.

Hebert is also the founder and CEO of the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics at the University of Guelph. The school says it’s the world’s first – and largest – digital biodiversity archive with “more than nine million images and sequences from more than 15 million specimens.” He’s also the scientific director of the International Barcode of Life, also based at the U of G, which links international researchers to create a global DNA barcode reference library.

Hebert is the fourth Canadian to receive the Benjamin Franklin Medal.

The award recognizes the work of scientists, engineers, inventors and industrialists like past winners Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Marie and Pierre Curie.

The award ceremony will be held on April 18 at the Franklin Institute science museum in Philadelphia.