Class
| • | 2. Biological Sciences | [X] |
Subdivision
| • | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Bruce Alberts | | | Institution: | University of California, San Francisco | | | Year Elected: | 1994 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1938 | | | | | | |
Bruce Alberts is a molecular biologist of extraordinary breadth. His rigorous studies of the replication of the genome of a bacterial virus led to the concept of a complex "protein machine" that carries out the sequential steps of DNA replication. Along the way, he discovered novel proteins that unwind, stabilize or relax DNA as they participate in the replication process.
Dr. Alberts is one of the principal authors of The Molecular Biology of the Cell, considered the field's leading advanced textbook and used widely in U.S. colleges and universities. Born in Chicago, he graduated from Harvard College with a degree in biochemical sciences and earned a doctorate from Harvard University in 1965. He joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1966 and after 10 years moved to the Medical School of the University of California, San Francisco, where he is now professor emeritus. He was awarded an American Cancer Society Lifetime Research Professorship in 1980. He served as president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1993 to 2005. Dr. Alberts has been a leader in efforts to improve science education in public schools and has guided policy studies as chairman of the Commission on Life Sciences of the National Research Council. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Science. In 2010 he was named winner of the George Brown Award for International Scientific Cooperation, in 2014 he was awarded the National Medal of Science, and in 2016 he was recognized by the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Harold Varmus | | | Institution: | National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health | | | Year Elected: | 1994 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1939 | | | | | | |
Harold Varmus, former Director of the National Institutes of Health and co-recipient of a Nobel Prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City from 2000 until 2010. On December 20, 2008, Harold Varmus was appointed co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology by incoming President Obama. He was appointed Director of the National Cancer Institute in July 2010 and served through March 2015. He is currently Senior Advisor to the Dean and Provost at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
Much of Dr. Varmus' scientific work was conducted during 23 years as a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco, where he and Dr. J. Michael Bishop and their co-workers demonstrated the cellular origins of the oncogene of a chicken retrovirus. This discovery led to the isolation of many cellular genes that normally control growth and development and are frequently mutated in human cancer. For this work, Bishop and Varmus received many awards, including the 1989 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Dr. Varmus is also widely recognized for his studies of the replication cycles of retroviruses and hepatitis B viruses, the functions of genes implicated in cancer, and the development of mouse models for human cancer (the focus of much of the current work in his laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center).
In 1993, Dr. Varmus was named by President Clinton to serve as the Director of the National Institutes of Health, a position he held until the end of 1999. During his tenure at the NIH, he initiated many changes in the conduct of intramural and extramural research programs, recruited new leaders for most of the important positions at the NIH, planned three major buildings on the NIH campus, and helped to increase the NIH budget from under $11 billion to nearly $18 billion.
In addition to authoring over 300 scientific papers and five books, including an introduction to the genetic basis of cancer for a general audience, Varmus has been an advisor to the federal government, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, and many academic institutions. He served on the World Health Organization's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, chairs the Board of Directors of Public Library of Science and the Scientific Board of the Grand Challenges in Global Health, and is involved in initiatives to promote science in other countries. He has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 1984 and of the Institute of Medicine since 1991. His latest book, for which he won the 2009 Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award, is a memoir entitled The Art and Politics of Science (2009). In 2011, he was awarded the Double Helix Medal from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
A native of Freeport, Long Island, Varmus is the son of Dr. Frank Varmus, a general practitioner, and Beatrice Varmus, a psychiatric social worker. After graduating from Freeport High School, he majored in English literature at Amherst College and earned a master's degree in English at Harvard University. He is a graduate of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, worked as a medical student in a hospital in India, and served on the medical house staff at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. His scientific training occurred first as a Public Health Service officer at the NIH, where he studied bacterial gene expression with Dr. Ira Pastan, and then as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Bishop at the University of California, San Francisco.
He is married to Constance Casey, a journalist and horticulturist; their two sons, Jacob and Christopher, also live in New York City. | |
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