| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Richard Axel | | | Institution: | Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Columbia University | | | Year Elected: | 2003 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1946 | | | | | | |
Richard Axel is University Professor at Columbia University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has pioneered the application of the techniques of molecular genetics to the analysis of cell function eukaryotic organisms. Toward that goal, he first developed techniques for integrating virtually any gene into any mammalian cell in such a way that the genes are stably integrated within the chromosome of the recipient cell, function normally, and are appropriately regulated. The gene transfer techniques developed by Dr. Axel have revolutionized molecular structure and function. Dr. Axel has now gone on to apply the power of molecular genetics to the study of cellular function in the nervous system. This work led to the cloning by Drs. Axel and Buck of the olfactory receptors, and to a mapping of the distribution of these receptors, first on the olfactory epithelium and then on the olfactory bulb. Dr. Axel next extended this approach to a second olfactory system, the vomeronasal organ, and found a second novel family of genes which encode the presumed receptors for pheromones. Finally he is exploring the behavioral function of these receptors in mice and flies. This brilliant series of studies has revolutionized the study of the sense of smell. In 2009 he won the Tower of Hope Excellence in Science Award from the Israel Cancer Research Fund. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Herbert George Baker | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley | | | Year Elected: | 1986 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1920 | | | Death Date: | July 2, 2001 | | | | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Cornelia Isabella Bargmann | | | Institution: | Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Rockefeller University | | | Year Elected: | 2012 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1961 | | | | | | |
Cornelia I. Bargmann is currently both an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior at Rockefeller University. Born in Virginia, she received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987. She won the Richard Lounsbery Award in Biology and Medicine from the National Academy of Sciences in 2009, the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience in 2012, and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2013. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2002) and the National Academy of Sciences (2003).
Cori Bargmann is recognized internationally through her elegant work on neural development and behavior using a tiny roundworm, C. elegans. The worm has become a key model organism in biomedical research because, having just 302 neurons, it is possible to know the detailed wiring of the nervous system on a cellular level and deduct the worm's behavior from its circuit. With the complete genome available, precise genetic manipulation can modify circuits and behavior. Insights gained from this powerful approach, on sensory perception, navigation, oxygen sensing, feeding behavior, and stress response, can now be used to guide research on the complexities of the human disorders such as dyslexia, epilepsy, and autism. Cori is a brilliant individual with a passion for science and scholarship and a generous and beloved person. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2012. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Floyd E. Bloom | | | Institution: | The Scripps Research Institute | | | Year Elected: | 1989 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1936 | | | | | | |
As chairman of the Scripps Research Department of Neuropharmacology between 1989-2000 and 2002-05, Floyd Bloom has for some years been at the forefront of neuroscience research. A professor at Scripps from 1983 until his appointment as chairman, he was among the first to determine the distribution of neuronal circuits in the brain by chemically labeling the transmitter characteristics of neurons in each circuit. Such evidence established the fact that signaling in the brain may be chemical as well as electrical. By applying newly developed methods, he has investigated brain-specific proteins and conducted pioneering studies on nervous system disorders of genetic origin. Presently professor emeritus at Scripps Research Institute, Dr. Bloom has also devoted substantial effort to the work of Neurome, Inc., the La Jolla-based biotechnology company dedicated to discovery and development of solutions for human neurodegenerative diseases, which he co-founded in 2000. Dr. Bloom has also served as editor-in-chief of Science and as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1977 and is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Janssen Award in the Basic Sciences and the Pasarow Award in Neuropsychiatry. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and a member of the Institute of Medicine. He has over 600 publications to his credit, including The Biochemical Basis of Neuropharmacology. | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Karl Deisseroth | | | Institution: | Stanford University; Howard Hughes Medical Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2022 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1971 | | | | | | |
Karl Deisseroth is the D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He earned both his Ph.D. and his M.D. from Stanford University in 1998 and 2000, respectively. He continues as a practicing psychiatrist with specialization in affective disorders and autism-spectrum disease.
Deisseroth focuses his laboratory on understanding how operation of the brain arises from the properties and activities of its cellular components. Over the last 17 years, his laboratory has created and developed technologies for observing and controlling biological systems at high resolution while maintaining the systems intact; these technologies include optogenetics, hydrogel-tissue chemistry, and a broad range of enabling methods. He pioneered the resulting basic science discoveries as well, including resolution of the structural and functional machinery of light-gated ion channels, and discovery of neural cell types and connections that cause adaptive and maladaptive behavior. His contributions have revolutionized neuroscience by creating and using tools to assess causality between observed neural activity in specific neuronal populations and circuits and the emergence of behavior and emotional responses.
His awards and honors include the 2015 Breakthrough Prize, the 2015 Keio Prize, the 2015 Lurie Prize, the 2015 Albany Prize, the 2015 Dickson Prize in Medicine, the 2016 BBVA Award, the 2016 Massry Prize, the 2017 Redelsheimer Prize, the 2017 Fresenius Prize, the 2017 NOMIS Distinguished Scientist Award, the 2017 Harvey Prize from the Technion/Israel, the 2018 Eisenberg Prize, the 2018 Kyoto Prize, the 2018 Gairdner Award, and the 2020 Heineken Prize in Medicine from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine in 2010, to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2012, and to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2019. Deisseroth was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2022. | |
| 6 | Name: | Dr. John E. Dowling | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 1992 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1935 | | | | | | |
John E. Dowling received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He taught in the Biology Department at Harvard from 1961 to 1964, first as an Instructor, then as Assistant Professor. In 1964 he moved to Johns Hopkins University, where he held an appointment as Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Biophysics. He returned to Harvard as Professor of Biology in 1971, was the Maria Moors Cabot Professor of Natural Sciences from 1971-2001, Harvard College Professor from 1999-2004 and is presently the Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences. He was Chairman of the Biology Department at Harvard from 1975 to 1978 and served as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1980 to 1984. He was Master of Leverett House at Harvard from 1981-1998 and served as President of the Corporation of The Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole from 1998-2008.
He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society. He received the Friedenwald Medal from the Association of Research in Ophthalmology and Vision in 1970, the Annual Award of the New England Ophthalmological Society in 1979, the Retinal Research Foundation Award for Retinal Research in 1981, an Alcon Vision Research Recognition Award in 1986, a National Eye Institute’s MERIT award in 1987, the Von Sallman Prize in 1992, The Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research in 2000, the Llura Ligget Gund Award for Lifetime Achievement and Recognition of Contribution to the Foundation Fighting Blindness in 2001 and the Paul Kayser International Award in Retina Research in 2008.. He was granted an honorary M.D. degree by the University of Lund (Sweden) in 1982.
His research interests have focused on the vertebrate retina as a model piece of the brain. He and his collaborators have long been interested in the functional organization of the retina, studying its synaptic organization, the electrical responses of the retinal neurons, and the mechanisms underlying neurotransmission and neuromodulation in the retina. He became interested in zebrafish as a system in which one could explore the development and genetics of the vertebrate retina about 15 years ago. Part of his research team has focused on retinal development in zebrafish and the role of retinoic acid in early eye and photoreceptor development. A second group has developed behavioral tests to isolate mutations, both recessive and dominant, specific to the visual system. | |
| 7 | Name: | Dr. Catherine Dulac | | | Institution: | Harvard University; Howard Hughes Medical Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2019 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1963 | | | | | | |
Catherine Dulac is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Lee and Ezpeleta Professor of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Her work explores the identity and function of neural circuits underlying instinctive social behaviors in mice, and the role of genomic imprinting in the adult and developing brain. She grew up in Montpellier, France, graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, and received her PhD from the University of Paris VI. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University and joined the faculty of Harvard as a junior faculty in 1996, before becoming full professor in 2001, and Chair of Harvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology from 2007 until 2013. She is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and of the French Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is a recipient of multiple awards including the Richard Lounsbery Award, the National Academy’s Pradel Research Award, the Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience, the Karl Spencer Lashley Award from the American Philosophical Society, and the 2021 Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences. | |
| 8 | Name: | Dr. Katherine Esau | | | Institution: | University of California, Santa Barbara | | | Year Elected: | 1964 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1898 | | | Death Date: | 6/4/97 | | | | |
| 9 | Name: | Dr. Gerald D. Fischbach | | | Institution: | Columbia University | | | Year Elected: | 2003 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1938 | | | | | | |
Gerald Fischbach received an M.D. at Cornell University Medical School in
1965. Dr. Fischbach was Edison Professor of Neurobiology at the Washington
University School of Medicine from 1981-90 and served as chief of the
Neurobiology Department of Massachusetts General Hospital and Nathan Pusey
Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School from 1990-98. In 1998 he
was appointed Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders
and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health. He joined the faculty of
Columbia University in 2001 and served as Executive Vice President for Health
and Biomedical Sciences, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Harold and
Margaret Hatch Professor of the University before assuming his current role
as John E. Borne Professor of Medical and Surgical Research. In 2006 he
joined the Simons Foundation as their Scientific Director. Gerald Fischbach
pioneered the field of synapse formation with the dramatic discovery that
motor neurons form functional synapses with muscle cells in dissociated cell
culture. This brilliant advance revolutionized the study of neuronal
development in general, and synapse formation in particular, permitting Dr.
Fischbach to solve many key problems about the synaptic organization of CNS
neurons. Dr. Fischbach showed that motor nerves induce Adh receptor
expression at sites of neurotransmitter release, through the release of a
diffusible factor, cloned the gene encoding this factor, and identified it as
Neuregulin. This discovery represented a landmark in the neurosciences: the
delineation of a molecule that directs synapse organization. Dr. Fischbach's
studies have transformed the study of synapse formation from a purely
physiological field to one that is now in the mainstream of cell and
molecular biology. His visionary use of neuronal cell culture has served as a
prototype for studies of how synapses form between CNS neurons, and how
synaptic plasticity is regulated. Dr. Fischbach received the Foundation Ipsen
Neuronal Plasticity Prize in 1998, the Nathan Davis Award in 2000, and the
Parkinson's Disease Foundation Honor for Contributions in 2003. He is a
member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts &
Sciences, and the Society of Neuroscience, where he served as president from
1983-84. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in
2003.
Web Link 1: simonsfoundation.org | |
| 10 | Name: | Dr. Fred H. Gage | | | Institution: | Salk Institute for Biological Studies | | | Year Elected: | 2010 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1950 | | | | | | |
Fred H. Gage received his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 1976. He is president and professor in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases. In January 2019 the the Board of Trustees of the Salk Institute coted to extend his term as President through 2024.
Gage's work concentrates on the adult central nervous system and unexpected plasticity and adaptability to environmental stimulation that remains throughout the life of all mammals. His work may lead to methods of replacing or enhancing brain and spinal cord tissues lost or damaged due to Neurodegenerative disease or trauma. Gage's lab showed that, contrary to accepted dogma, human beings are capable of growing new nerve cells throughout life. Small populations of immature nerve cells are found in the adult mammalian brain, a process called Neurogenesis. Gage is working to understand how these cells can be induced to become mature functioning nerve cells in the adult brain and spinal cord. They showed that environmental enrichment and physical exercise can enhance the growth of new brain cells and they are studying the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that may be harnessed to repair the aged and damaged brain and spinal cord.
Several of his numerous prizes and awards include the IPSEN Prize for Neuroplasticity, the Charles A. Dana Award, Metropolitan Life Research Award, the Keio Medical Science Prize, and the ARCS Scientist of the Year award. He is President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2010. | |
| 11 | Name: | Dr. Corey S. Goodman | | | Institution: | Pfizer Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center; University of California, Berkeley | | | Year Elected: | 1999 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1951 | | | | | | |
Corey Goodman was named president of Pfizer's Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center in 2007. Prior to this appointment, he was president and CEO of Renovis, a neuroscience biopharmaceutical company he helped co-found in 2000. Dr. Goodman received his B.S. degree in biology from Stanford University in 1972, and his Ph.D. degree in neurobiology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. From 1977 to 1979 he was a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at U.C. San Diego. Beginning in 1979 he was a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University, receiving tenure in 1982. In 1987 he joined the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Evan Rauch Professor of Neuroscience, and Director of the Wills Neuroscience Institute. Dr. Goodman is a world leader in the understanding of the molecules and mechanisms that control nerve growth and guidance, and their implications for nerve restoration and repair. In 2001, he became President and CEO of Renovis. He is also President of the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, and Chair of the National Research Council's Board on Life Sciences. Prior to co-founding Renovis, Dr. Goodman co-founded Exelixis in 1994. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Amongst his many scientific honors is the Alan T. Waterman Award for Achievement in Medical Sciences in 1997, and the March-of-Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology in 2001. | |
| 12 | Name: | Dr. Ann M. Graybiel | | | Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2016 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1942 | | | | | | |
Ann Martin Graybiel and coworkers pioneered understanding of the basal ganglia, brain structures related to movement and emotion that are disordered in neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders. Relatively little was known about the neurobiology of these structures until Graybiel and her students discovered the structural architecture of the striatum, a physical design now known to underpin the organization of genes and neurotransmitters, including dopamine, linked to Parkinson’s disease. By training animals to learn habits, she and her group discovered neural activity templates for habit learning in the striatum and found that distinct activity patterns uniquely characterize different motor and emotion-related regions. Graybiel and students now are finding that these templates can be modified by circuit intervention, opening the possibility of new therapeutic approaches to disorders of movement and emotion. | |
| 13 | Name: | Dr. Paul Greengard | | | Institution: | Rockefeller University | | | Year Elected: | 1994 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1925 | | | Death Date: | April 13, 2019 | | | | | | |
Paul Greengard was Vincent Astor Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at The Rockefeller University from 1983 until his death in 2019. He received his Ph.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1953. He then spent five years in England receiving advanced training at the University of London, at Cambridge University and at the National Institute of Medical Research. Upon his return to the United States, Greengard worked as Director of the Department of Biochemistry at Geigy Research Laboratories, in Ardsley, New York, for eight years. From 1968 to 1983, he served as Professor of Pharmacology and Psychiatry at Yale University. Greengard authored over 1,000 scientific publications and his achievements earned him numerous prestigious awards. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for his discovery of how dopamine and a number of other neurotransmitters exert their action in the brain. Paul Greengard died April 13, 2019 in Manhattan at the age of 93. | |
| 14 | Name: | Dr. John G. Hildebrand | | | Institution: | University of Arizona; National Academy of Sciences | | | Year Elected: | 2014 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1942 | | | | | | |
John G. Hildebrand earned his A.B. degree (magna cum laude, in biology) at Harvard University and Ph.D. degree (in biochemistry) at The Rockefeller University. After serving as a member of the faculty of the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School (1969-1980) and the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University (1980-85), he moved to the University of Arizona in Tucson as founding head of the Division of Neurobiology (1985-2009) and subsequently the Department of Neuroscience (2009-2013, after the Division became a Department in the College of Science). He currently is Regents Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Entomology, and Molecular and Cellular Biology and Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences. His research fields are insect neurobiology and behavior, olfaction, chemical ecology, and vector biology, and he is an author of more than 215 peer-reviewed research papers and reviews and an editor of five books. His multidisciplinary, pioneering research endeavor has yielded numerous discoveries and insights about the functional organization and development of, and neural mechanisms of sensory information processing in, the olfactory systems of insects and their roles in mate-seeking and interactions with hosts. A past president of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences (2002-03), International Society of Chemical Ecology (1998-99), and International Society for Neuroethology (1995-98), he also has served as a trustee of The Rockefeller University (1970-73) and The Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole (1982-89) and as a Councilor of the National Academy of Sciences (2012-15). He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences 'Leopoldina’, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. An Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (UK) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Entomological Society of America, and the International Society for Neuroethology, he was granted an honorary degree (Laurea honoris causa) by the Universitá degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy, in 2000. Among his other honors have been MERIT and Javits Awards from NIH (1986), R.H. Wright Award in Olfactory Research (1990), Max Planck Research Award of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (1990), Founders Memorial Award of the Entomological Society of America (1997), IFF Award for Innovative Research in the Chemoreception Sciences (1997), Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (1997), Lifetime Achievement Award of the Diversity Program in Neuroscience from the American Psychological Association (2006), Silver Medal of the International Society of Chemical Ecology (2006), Outstanding Service Award for Contributions to the Biological Sciences from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (2006), Einstein Professorship of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2008), and the Max Mozell Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Chemical Senses from the Association for Chemoreception Sciences (2012). He was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 2014. | |
| 15 | Name: | Dr. A. J. Hudspeth | | | Institution: | Rockefeller University; Howard Hughes Medical Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2015 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1945 | | | | | | |
Born and raised in Houston, Jim Hudspeth conducted undergraduate studies at Harvard College and received PhD and MD degrees from Harvard Medical School. Following postdoctoral work at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, he served on the faculties of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. After joining Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Jim moved to The Rockefeller University, where he is F. M. Kirby Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience. Dr. Hudspeth conducts research on hair cells, the sensory receptors of the inner ear. He and his colleagues are especially interested in the active process that sensitizes the ear, sharpens its frequency selectivity, and broadens its dynamic range. They also investigate the replacement of hair cells as a potential therapy for hearing loss. Jim is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. | |
| 16 | Name: | Dr. Tibor Jermy | | | Institution: | Plant Protection Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest | | | Year Elected: | 1990 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1917 | | | Death Date: | September 23, 2014 | | | | | | |
Tibor Jermy was distinguished for his work in ecology, especially insect-plant relationships. He was the foremost proponent of the sequential theory of the evolution of insect-plant relationships, emphasizing the asymmetry of the relationship. He postulated that the explosive evolution of the plant kingdom provided the diverse biochemical basis for the radiation of phytophagous insects without significant evolutionary feedback from the insects to the plants. He proposed that the evolution of host specialization is an autonomous process initiated by random heritable changes in the insects' host recognition trait. In the 1950s Dr. Jermy conducted pioneering work on the functioning of ecosystems, and through his fluency in Hungarian, English, German and Russian, he helped unlock a storehouse of literature that had previously been unknown to Western scientists. Born in 1917, Dr. Jermy had a Ph.D. from the University of Budapest. He began his career as an agricultural entomologist at the Plant Protection Institute of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture, where he focused on the biology and control of pest insects. He went on to direct the Institute from 1969-79 and became Director Emeritus in 1979. Dr. Jermy had also served as a Ford Foundation fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and as visiting scientist at the Agricultural University of Wageningen in the Netherlands and the USDA Agricultural Research Laboratory in Yakima, WA. Among other learned societies he was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1976) and an Honorary Member of the British Ecological Society (1992). He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1990. His many awards include the Golden Medal of Wrok (1977), the Hungarian State Prize (1983) and the Golden Medal of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Tibor Jermy died September 23, 2014, at the age of 97, in Budapest, Hungary. | |
| 17 | Name: | Dr. Eric R. Kandel | | | Institution: | Columbia University; Howard Hughes Medical Institute | | | Year Elected: | 1984 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1929 | | | | | | |
Eric Kandel received his M.D. from New York University School of Medicine in 1956. He was a resident in psychiatry and staff psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 1960-65, before turning his attention to neurobiology. In 1965 he returned to New York University, serving as associate professor in the department of physiology and psychiatry. He moved to Columbia University in 1974 as professor in the departments of physiology and psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He also directed the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, 1974-83, and was appointed University Professor in 1983. He has also been professor in the departments of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Columbia and senior investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Renowned for his pathbreaking contributions to our knowledge of mind, Eric Kandel shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his research on the physiological basis of memory storage in neurons. Through studies of invertebrates such as the giant marine snail, Aplysia, he has succeeded in reframing memory and other mental processes as series of molecular events determined by the physicochemical qualities of cellular life. Well-known for his contributions to textbooks such as Principles of Neural Science, Dr. Kandel is the author of In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind (2006) and The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconsccious in Art, Mind and Brain, From Vienna 1900 to the Present (2012). The recipient of the Karl Spencer Lashley Prize in Neurobiology (1981) and the Wolf Prize in Biology and Medicine (1999), Eric Kandel is a member of the National Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences (1974), and the Royal Society. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1984. In 2006 Dr. Kandel was awarded the American Philosophical Society's Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences. The citation read "in recognition of his leadership in the study at the cellular and molecular levels of the biology of the mental processes, and especially the character of learning and memory. The American Philosophical Society salutes Eric Kandel for advancing the study of learning and memory - long the provinces of philosophy and psychology - into the "empirical language of biology." Kandel is the author of The Disordered Mind: what Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves (2018). | |
| 18 | Name: | Dr. Donald Kennedy | | | Institution: | Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 1976 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1931 | | | Death Date: | April 21, 2020 | | | | | | |
Donald Kennedy was a Professor of Environmental Science and President of Stanford University. He received AB and Ph.D. degrees in biology from Harvard University.
His research interests were originally in animal behavior and neurobiology - in particular, the mechanisms by which animals generate and control patterned motor output. His research group explored the relationship between central "commands" and sensory feedback in the control of locomotion, escape, and other behaviors in invertebrates. Among the issues considered were how environmental variables that could not be "anticipated" by the animal's genetic endowment could be compensated in fixed behavioral patterns and whether certain circuit arrangements for a given class of motor output were favored in different evolutionary outcomes.
In 1977 Dr. Kennedy took leave from Stanford to serve as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for two and a half years. This followed an increasing academic interest on his part in regulatory policy regarding health and the environment. Kennedy had already chaired the National Academy of Sciences study on alternatives to pesticide use and participated in the World Food and Nutrition Study. Following his return to Stanford in 1979, Dr. Kennedy served for a year as Provost and for twelve years as President, a time marked by renewed attention to undergraduate education and student commitment to public service, and successful completion of the largest capital campaign in the history of higher education. During that time Dr. Kennedy continued to work on health and environmental policy issues, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Health Effects Institute (a non-profit organization devoted to mobile source emissions), Clean Sites, Inc. (a similar organization devoted to toxic waste cleanup), and the California Nature Conservancy.
His research program toward the end of his career, conducted partially through the Institute for International Studies, consisted of interdisciplinary studies on the development of policies regarding such trans-boundary environmental problems as: major land-use changes; economically-driven alterations in agricultural practice; global climate change; and the development of regulatory policies. He co-directed the Environmental Studies Program in the Institute for International Studies, and oversaw the introduction of the environmental policy quarter at Stanford's center in Washington, DC in 1993. Dr. Kennedy was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Donald Kennedy died April 21, 2020 in Redwood City, California at the age of 88. | |
| 19 | Name: | Dr. Eric Knudsen | | | Institution: | Stanford University School of Medicine | | | Year Elected: | 2016 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1949 | | | | | | |
Dr. Knudsen received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego in 1976. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology in 1979. He joined the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University as an assistant professor in 1979, became a full professor in 1988, and served as Chair of the Department from 2000-2005. He is currently the Sewall Professor of Neurobiology, Emeritus at Stanford University School of Medicine. His research has focused on how the central nervous system processes information, how it learns from experience, and how it selects information for attention and decision-making. Dr. Knudsen has received a number of honors and awards, including election to the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Society’s Karl Spencer Lashley Award in 2008 "for his comprehensive study of visual and auditory perception in the owl and for his elucidation of how the auditory map is calibrated by the visual system during development." He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2016. | |
| 20 | Name: | Dr. Paul J. Kramer | | | Institution: | Duke University | | | Year Elected: | 1971 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1904 | | | Death Date: | 5/24/95 | | | | |
| |