Longtime BioFrontiers Institute leader Cech steps down to focus on cancer research

BOULDER — Tom Cech, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist and distinguished University of Colorado professor, stepped down this month from his position as executive director of CU’s BioFrontiers Institute, a role he held for more than a decade. 

The institute serves as a hub for research, education and problem solving related to bioscience and human health topics that bring together CU faculty and students from disciplines such as biology, biochemistry, computer science, chemistry, physics and engineering.

“I was the executive director for 11 years,” Cech, who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his…