culture nonhuman primate embryonic stem cells. This led to his human embryonic stem cell discovery in 1998. Current employment He serves as Director of Regenerative Biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wisconsin, is a professor in the Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and a professor in the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also a founder of Cellular Dynamics International, a Madison-based company producing derivatives of human induced pluripotent stem cells for drug discovery and toxicity testing. Awards Thomson is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the recipient of numerous awards and prizes. In 1999, Thomson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. He was on the cover of TIME magazine's "America's Best in Science & Medicine" feature in 2001 for his work with human embryonic stem cells, and again in 2008 when the magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people for his derivation of human induced pluripotent stem cells. In 2011, Thomson was co-recipient, with Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, of the King Faisal International Prize and the Albany Medical Center Prize. In 2013, Thomson received an honorary doctor of science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also won the 2013 McEwen Award for Innovation from the International Society for Stem Cell Research. References External links "Stem cell pioneer does a reality check". MSNBC interview with James Thomson Nature Reports Stem Cells Q&A with James Thomson 21st-century American biologists University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Scientists from Oak Park, Illinois Year of birth missing (living people)