Class
| • | 2. Biological Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Russell F. Doolittle | | | Institution: | University of California, San Diego | | | Year Elected: | 1992 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 206. Physiology, Biophysics, and Pharmacology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1931 | | | Death Date: | October 11, 2019 | | | | | | |
Russell Doolittle was a professor of biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. An insightful and articulate scientist, he was an expert on the structure and evolution of proteins. Having worked out the covalent structure of fibrinogen and its role in blood clot formation, he became interested in the molecular evolution of this protein and contributed to the molecular analysis of its evolution as well as those of other proteins. Drawing on his personal computerized file of protein and DNA sequences, Dr. Doolittle discovered the remarkable similarity between the cancer-producing gene of a virus and a normal gene that encodes a growth factor from blood platelets. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Institutes of Health Career Development Award, Dr. Doolittle was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Russell Doolittle died October 11, 2019 in La Jolla, California at the age of 88. | |
| 2 | 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. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Frederic M. Richards | | | Institution: | Yale University | | | Year Elected: | 1992 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1925 | | | Death Date: | January 11, 2009 | | | | | | |
A pioneer in crystallography and structural biology, Frederic M. Richards has been Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University since 1991. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1952 and, aside from a year in Copenhagen with Linderstrom Lang and a year in Cambridge with A.C. Chibnell, he has spent his entire academic career at Yale, chairing the department of molecular biology, biophysics and chemistry from 1969-73. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Dr. Richards has received honors such as the Pfizer-Paul Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry (1965), the Kai Linderstrom-Lang Prize in Protein Chemistry (1978) and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology-Merck Award (1988). An intellectual leader, Dr. Richards is admired not only for his meticulous science, which has relevance to many fields, but for his generous, open and warm scientific style. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Solomon H. Snyder | | | Institution: | Johns Hopkins University | | | Year Elected: | 1992 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1938 | | | | | | |
Solomon H. Snyder received his undergraduate and medical training at Georgetown University and his psychiatric training at The Johns Hopkins University (JHU). In 1966, he joined the staff of the Department of Pharmacology at JHU's School of Medicine. Presently he is Distinguished Service Professor of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, and Pharmacology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Many advances in molecular neuroscience have stemmed from Dr. Snyder's identification of receptors for neurotransmitters and drugs and elucidation of the actions of psychotropic agents. He pioneered the labeling of receptors by reversible ligand binding in the identification of opiate receptors and extended this technique for all the major neurotransmitter receptors in the brain. In characterizing each new group of receptors, he also elucidated actions of major neuroactive drugs. The isolation and subsequent cloning of receptor proteins stems from the ability to label, and thus monitor, receptors by these ligand binding techniques. The application of Dr. Snyder's techniques has enhanced the development of new agents in the pharmaceutical industry by enabling rapid screening of large numbers of candidate drugs. Dr. Snyder is the recipient of numerous professional honors including the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Biomedical Research (1978), the Wolf Foundation Prize in Medicine (1983), the Franklin Institute's Bower Award (1991), the Albany Prize in Medicine (2007), and the National Medal of Science (2004). He is the author of more than 900 journal articles and several books including Uses of Marijuana (1971), Madness and the Brain (1974), The Troubled Mind (1976), Biological Aspects of Abnormal Behavior (1980), Drugs and the Brain (1986) and Brainstorming (1989). Dr. Snyder was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 1992. | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Joan A. Steitz | | | Institution: | Yale University | | | Year Elected: | 1992 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1941 | | | | | | |
Joan A. Steitz is Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University as well as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She has made important research contributions to the study of the role of small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) in eukaryotic cells, and she is credited with discovering that complexes containing these snRNAs reacted specifically with sera from autoimmune patients. She then recognized that sequences in one of these snRNAs were complementary to sequences important in splicing of RNA in the nucleus of cells. This hypothesis proved correct and played a critical role in directing the field. Dr. Steitz is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry (1982), the National Medal of Science (1987), the Dickson Prize for Science (1989), the Cristopher Columbus Discovery Award in Biomedical Research (1992), the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award (2002), the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2008), the Connecticut Medal of Science (2015), the William Clyde DeVane Medal (2016), and the Wolf Prize in Medicine (2021). A graduate of Antioch College (B.S., 1963) and Harvard University (Ph.D., 1967), she was elected to the membership of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1982 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1983. | |
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