| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Diane E. Griffin | | | Institution: | Johns Hopkins University | | | Year Elected: | 2018 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 205. Microbiology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1940 | | | | | | |
Diane E. Griffin MD, PhD is University Distinguished Service Professor and former Chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Vice President of the US National Academy of Sciences. She earned her BA in Biology at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL and her MD and PhD at Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research interests are in the area of pathogenesis of viral diseases with a particular focus on measles and arboviral encephalitis. These studies address issues related to virulence and the role of immune responses in protection from infection and in clearance of infection. She has more than 400 publications and has served on multiple advisory and editorial boards. She is the US Chair of the US-Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences Program and past president of the American Society for Virology and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and Association of American Physicians, as well as the National Academy of Sciences. Among other honors, she has received the Rudolf Virchow Medal from the University of Wurzburg (2010), Wallace Sterling Lifetime Alumni Achievement Award from Stanford University (2011), FASEB Excellence in Science Award (2015), Maxwell Finland Award from the NFID (2016) and MilliporeSigma Alice C. Evans Award from the ASM (2017). | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Richard E. Lenski | | | Institution: | Michigan State University | | | Year Elected: | 2018 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 205. Microbiology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1956 | | | | | | |
Richard E. Lenski is an evolutionary biologist, one who pursues an experimental approach to watch the process of evolution in action. In an on-going experiment that he started in 1988, Lenski and his team have been monitoring and analyzing 12 populations of E. coli bacteria as they evolve in a controlled environment for almost 70,000 generations. This work has provided fundamental insights into the process of microbial adaptation, the dynamics of genome evolution, and the origin of new functions. Samples have been stored periodically in freezers, and the cells that lived in different generations can be revived and directly compared - in effect, allowing time travel. In addition to studying microbial evolution, Lenski collaborates on experiments in which computer programs self-replicate, mutate, compete, and thereby evolve in and adapt to their virtual worlds. Lenski did his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, graduate work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and postdoctoral research at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He began his faculty career at the University of California, Irvine, before joining Michigan State University in 1991 as the John Hannah Professor of Microbial Ecology, with sabbatical stints at the University of Oxford and Université de Montpellier. Lenski has mentored more than 25 graduate students and postdoctoral associates who are now on the faculties of universities around the United States and the world. He is a past president of the Society for the Study of Evolution, and he helped start the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, which brings together biologists, computer scientists, and engineers to illuminate and harness the power of evolution. Lenski has received fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, he holds an honorary degree from Wageningen University, and he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Robin A. Weiss | | | Institution: | University College London | | | Year Elected: | 2018 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 205. Microbiology | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1940 | | | | | | |
Robin Weiss is Emeritus Professor of Viral Oncology at University College London. He has spent most of his career conducting research on oncogenic viruses and on HIV. He is noted for his contributions to the discovery of endogenous retroviral genomes and for identifying CD4 as the HIV receptor. His expanded his research on avian endogenous retroviruses inherited through the host genome to consider mammalian retroviruses including the potential infection hazard by these agents in xenotransplantation of pig tissues to humans. He studied viral oncogenes and viruses involved in AIDS-linked malignancies such as Kaposi’s sarcoma. He showed that in dogs, a sexually transmitted tumor cell clone emerged around 10,000 years ago which has colonized dogs worldwide and continues to spread as a ‘parasite’. He applied pseudotype techniques originally devised for retroviruses to the study of receptors and antibody neutralization for other viruses such as influenza, rabies and ebola. He recently exploited single-chain llama nanobodies for HIV vaccines and diagnostics and he currently investigates the history of infectious diseases. Weiss was Director of Research at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, 1980-1999, and was President of the Society for General Microbiology, 2006-2009. He has chaired the Scientific Advisory Board of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and served on the Board of Directors of the Africa Health Research Institute and on the Nuffield Council for Bioethics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences. | |
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