Class
| • | 2. Biological Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Paul Berg | | | Institution: | Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 1983 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1926 | | | Death Date: | February 15, 2023 | | | | | | |
Paul Berg is an acknowledged leader in the study of gene transfer from bacteria to viruses to cells of higher organisms. He witnessed firsthand the history of recombinant DNA research and regulation, having been in the forefront of both movements since he was a young man. He became a professor of biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1959, when he was 33. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences before the age of 40, and he gained early recognition and influence when he delineated the key steps in which DNA produces proteins. Dr. Berg was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980 for his work with DNA. In the mid-1970s, the National Academy of Sciences asked him to explore the safety of recombinant DNA technology. He responded with the historic "Berg letter," calling for a moratorium on recombinant DNA research until safety issues could be addressed. He was one of the key organizers of the international forum on recombinant DNA technology, the Asilomar Conference, which took place in February of 1975. One hundred leading scientists met at the conference to discuss the potential risks of gene-splicing experiments. The ensuing dialogue resulted in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines published a year later, a milestone of responsible self-regulation in science. Dr. Berg's laboratory continued to work with recombinant DNA techniques throughout the 1980s. In 1985, he became director of the New Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. In 1991, Dr. Berg was named head of the NIH's influential Human Genome Project. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. David A. Hamburg | | | Institution: | Weill Cornell Medical College; Carnegie Corporation of New York | | | Year Elected: | 1983 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 205. Microbiology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1925 | | | Death Date: | April 21, 2019 | | | | | | |
David Hamburg was president emeritus at Carnegie Corporation of New York, where he served as the Corporation's eleventh president from 1982-97. Under his leadership the work of the Corporation focused on education and healthy development of children and youth, human resources in developing countries, and international security issues. He established a number of task forces on education and preventing conflict which produced seminal research and policy analysis and which will continue to influence the work in these fields in the future. A medical doctor, Dr. Hamburg had a long history of leadership in the research, medical and psychiatric fields before his transition from a trustee of Carnegie to its president. An authority on psychosomatic and psychiatric diseases, he was broadly interested in human genetics and evolution. He was chief of the adult psychiatry branch at the National Institutes of Health, from 1958-61; professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University from 1961-72; Reed-Hodgson Professor of Human Biology at Stanford University from 1972-76; president of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, 1975-80; and director of the division of health policy research and education and John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy at Harvard University, 1980-83. He served as president and chairman of the board (1984-1986) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hamburg was a member of the United States Defense Policy Board with Secretary of Defense William Perry and cochair with former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance of the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict. He was a member of President Clinton's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School's department of social medicine and was the founder of the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government. In May 2006 Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him to chair the newly formed United Nations Advisory Committee on Genocide Prevention. The committee provided guidance and support to the work of the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide and contributed to the broader efforts of the UN to avert massive crimes against humanity. He was DeWitt Wallace Distinguished Scholar at the Weill Cornell Medical College and Co-Chair of the Social Medicine and Public Policy Programs. Hamburg received both his A.B. and M.D. degrees from Indiana University. He also received numerous honorary degrees during his career as well as the American Psychiatric Association's Distinguished Service Award in 1991, the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in 1996, the International Peace Academy's 25th Anniversary Special Award in 1996, the Achievement in Children and Public Policy Award from the Society for Research in Child Development in 1997, and the National Academy of Sciences' Public Welfare Medal in 1998. In 2007 he received the Institute of Medicine's Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Award in Mental Health jointly with his wife Beatrix; similarly, they were jointly awarded the 2015 Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. David Hamburg died on April 21, 2019 in Washington, D.C. at the age of 93. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Peter Marler | | | Institution: | University of California, Davis | | | Year Elected: | 1983 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 210. Behavioral Biology, Psychology, Ethology, and Animal Behavior | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1928 | | | Death Date: | July 5, 2014 | | | | | | |
Peter R. Marler was Professor Emeritus of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior at the University of California, Davis as well as Professor Emeritus at Rockefeller University at the time of his death on July 5, 2014, at age 86, in Winters, California. An expert on neuroethology and animal communication, Dr. Marler had long studied the behavior of animals, specifically the development of vocal communication in birds and primates. Beginning his work with uniquely detailed and revealing studies of bird song, principally the interaction of genetic influences with learning during a bird's lifetime, he went on to show in detail how song development is controlled by brain mechanisms and hormones. Dr. Marler also investigated vocal communication in the Great Apes and had critically studied the interaction of heredity and environmental influences in human language. His many publications include (with J.W.J. Hamilton) Mechanisms of Animal Behavior (1966) and (with J. Vandenbergh) Social Behavior and Communication (1979). Dr. Marler received a Ph.D. in botany from University College London (1952) and another Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Cambridge (1954). He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1983. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Elizabeth S. Russell | | | Institution: | Jackson Lab | | | Year Elected: | 1983 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1913 | | | Death Date: | May 28, 2001 | | | | |
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