APS Member History

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1	Name:	Dr. Robert Heinz Abeles
	Institution:	Brandeis University
	Year Elected:	1999
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Subdivision:	201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1926
	Death Date:	June 18, 2000

2	Name:	Dr. John Cairns
	Institution:	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
	Year Elected:	1999
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Subdivision:	203. Evolution & Ecology, Systematics, Population Genetics, Paleontology, and Physical Anthropology
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1923
	Death Date:	November 5, 2017

	John Cairns spent his research life studying natural ecosystems and how perturbations of various types affect them. His most widely acclaimed publications discussed factors causing stressed ecosystems and their restoration. He made extensive use of statistics and validation predictive models. For decades he used complex multivariant systems in his studies of microcosms and mesacosms. His work on reestablishment of damaged habitats is particularly important today because of the damage done to our planet. Dr. Cairns received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and completed a postdoctoral course in isotope methodology at Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia. He was Curator of Limnology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for 18 years and has taught at various universities and field stations, including Virginia Polytechnic University, where was Professor Emeritus beginning in 1995. Dr. Cairns' professional certifications included Qualified Fishery Administrator by the American Fisheries Society, Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America, and the Academy of Board Certified Environmental Professionals. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences; the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; the Linnean Society of London; and the American Microscopical Society, of which he was president. He has over 1,500 publications to his credit. John Cairns died on November 5, 2017 at age 94, in Blacksburg, Virginia.

3	Name:	Dr. Judah Folkman
	Institution:	Harvard Medical School & Children's Hospital
	Year Elected:	1999
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Subdivision:	204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1933
	Death Date:	January 14, 2008

4	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.

5	Name:	Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy
	Institution:	George Mason University; The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment
	Year Elected:	1999
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Subdivision:	205. Microbiology
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1941
	Death Date:	December 25, 2021

	Thomas Lovejoy received his Ph.D. from Yale University. He served as program director, vice president for science, and executive vice president of the World Wildlife Fund before his appointment as Science Advisor to the Secretary, United States Department of Interior, in 1993. He later became Counselor to the Secretary on Biodiversity and Environmental Affairs at the Smithsonian Institution, and Chief Biodiversity Advisor and Lead for Environment for Latin America and Caribbean for the World Bank. In 2002 he became president of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, and served until 2008. He currently serves as the Heinz Center Biodiviersity Chair. In 2010 he joined the faculty of George Mason University where he has a joint appointment as University Professor in the Environmental Science and Policy Department and the Department of Pulbic and International Affairs. Dr. Lovejoy is the recipient of numerous awards, including Commander, Order of Merit of Mato Grosso, Brazil; the Carr Medal of the Florida Museum of Natural History; the Frances K. Hutchinson Medal of The Garden Club of America; the Global 500 Roll of Honor of the United Nations Environment Program; the John Kimball Scott Award for International Health Leadership of the National Association of Physicians for the Environment; the Spirit of Defenders Award for Science from Defenders of Wildlife; and the 2014 Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service. He serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Botanical Garden, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the World Resources Institute, Woods Hole Research Center, the Tropical Foundation and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Thomas Lovejoy is one of the great modern pioneers of modern conservation biology and practice. In the late 1980s he conceived and initiated the Amazonian forest fragment project, "the world's largest biological experiment," which continues as a cornucopia of new information on tropical ecology and species extinction. In his work, among other advances, he discovered the "edge effect" of forest fragmentation, a key factor in ecological change, among other advances. Dr. Lovejoy is also an extraordinary integrator and leader in the intersection of science, government, and education, especially with reference to the global environment. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1999.

6	Name:	Dr. David G. Nathan
	Institution:	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute & Harvard Medical School
	Year Elected:	1999
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Subdivision:	204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Living
	Birth Date:	1929

	David Nathan is one of the most distinguished pediatric hematologists in the country. He has spent his career at Harvard University, where he has been a professor of medicine and professor of pediatrics, and in 1985 he was appointed Pediatrician-in-Chief at Childrens Hospital in Boston. In 1995 he became President of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Nathan has brought to his position scientific excellence, great integrity and a warm humanity. Among other awards he has received the National Medal of Science (1990) and the Henry Stratton Medal of the American Society of Hematology (1995). He earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1955.

7	Name:	Dr. Paul Schimmel
	Institution:	The Scripps Research Institute
	Year Elected:	1999
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Subdivision:	201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Living
	Birth Date:	1940

	Paul Schimmel is the Ernest and Jean Hahn Professor of Molecular Biology and Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. He received his Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and remained on the faculty of MIT until 1997. Dr. Schimmel is the recipient of the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society and is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Schimmel has contributed extensively to the understanding of the protein-RNA interactions that are the basis of the universal genetic code. He showed how features in small RNA structures are interpreted as specific amino acids referred to by some as a "second genetic code." Most recently he established how RNA structure plays an essential role in enhancing the accuracy of the genetic code by an error correction mechanism. Also, in other work, Nature magazine cited his development of "expressed sequence tags" as one of the four key developments that launched the human genome project. Author or co-author of 400 scientific papers and of a widely used three-volume textbook on biophysical chemistry, Dr. Schimmel has also applied basic biomedical research to human health. For example, his laboratory discovered human proteins active in blood vessel formation, developed them, and brought them to clinical medicine. He holds several patents and is cofounder or founding director of ten biotechnology companies, of which 5 are publicly traded. These companies are developing new therapies for human disease. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1999.

8	Name:	Dr. Thomas E. Starzl
	Institution:	University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
	Year Elected:	1999
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Subdivision:	204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1926
	Death Date:	March 4, 2017

	Thomas E. Starzl was director emeritus of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute of the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center at the time of his death March 4, 2017, at age 90. He received his Ph.D. in neurophysiology and his M.D. degrees at Northwestern University. Completing surgical training at The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Miami, he became a Markle Scholar and faculty member at Northwestern University. In 1962, shortly after joining the faculty at the University of Colorado, Dr. Starzl performed his first kidney transplant and subsequently the world's first human liver transplant. Within a year, he had more kidney transplant recipients surviving than all other surgeons combined. He improved immunosuppression with anti-lymphocyte globulin (ALG), cyclosporine-based treatment and tacrolimus. Largely through Dr. Starzl's efforts, transplantation of all organs came of age. Dr. Starzl joined the University of Pittsburgh faculty in 1981and performed the first of 30 liver transplants at the university that year, helping make the city the "transplant capital of the world." Retiring from clinical practice in 1991, Dr. Starzl (in collaboration with fellow APS member and Nobel laureate Rolf Zinkernagel) delineated the previously enigmatic mechanisms of organ engraftment and proposed radical modifications of immunosuppression strategy that facilitates these mechanisms. This work served to improve clinical outcomes as well as the overall understanding of the function of the immune system. In recognition of his groundbreaking work, he was awarded the Jonathan E. Rhoads Medal for Distinguished Service to Medicine in 2002 and the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor, in 2004. He received many other honors and awards, including the 2012 Lasker Award and the Blumberg Award from the Hepatitis B Foundation (2014), as well as 24 honorary doctorates from around the world. He published almost 2,200 scientific articles and four books, including his memoir entitled The Puzzle People: Memoirs of a Transplant Surgeon. Thomas Starzl was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 1999. In 2016 the Society presented him with the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Science. The citation read, "Tom Starzl has transformed human organ transplantation from science fiction to reliable treatment of fatal diseases, virtually changing medical practice. Fifty years ago when the world had only a handful of surviving kidney transplant recipients he showed that rejection was reversible, allowing consistent success. His introduction of new immunosuppressive agents helped him to accomplish the first liver and multivisceral transplants. His studies explain liver regeneration and determine that this organ controls lipid metabolism. His discovery of persistent donor cell chimerism in successful recipients points the way to allograft tolerance without chronic immunosuppression. In recognition of his profound contributions the American Philosophical Society salutes Thomas E. Starzl by awarding him its highest honor."

9	Name:	Dr. Richard F. Thompson
	Institution:	University of Southern California
	Year Elected:	1999
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Subdivision:	209. Neurobiology
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1930
	Death Date:	September 16, 2014

	Richard Thompson received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He was a professor at the University of Oregon School of Medicine from 1959-67 and a professor at the University of California, Irvine from 1967-73 and 1975-80. He was then professor, Karl Lashley's Chair, at Harvard University from 1973-75 and the Bing Professor of Human Biology and Psychology at Stanford University from 1980-87. He then became the Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences and Director of the Neurosciences Program at the University of Southern California. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association and the Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psychologists. He received the 2010 Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement from the American Psychological Foundation. He was the author of Foundations of Physiological Psychology (1967); (with others) Psychology (1971); and Introduction to Physiological Psychology (1975). Dr. Thompson served on the council of the Society for Neuroscience and as president of the American Psychological Society. He devoted his life to the study of brain substrates of behavior. His text, Foundations of Physiological Psychology, was a landmark in the development of modern behavioral neuroscience, as was his later founding and editing of the APA journal, Behavioral Neuroscience. Inspired by Karl Lashley's "search for the engram," his research was focused on neural mechanisms of learning and memory, initially in the now classic work with W.A. Spencer on habituation. Dr. Thompson and his students utilized basic associative learning in mammals, characterizing processes of memory formation in two brain structures: hippocampus and cerebellum. They appear to have localized one form of memory trace to the cerebellum, thus coming full circle to Lashley's initial quest. Dr. Thompson was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1999 and was awarded the Society's Karl Spencer Lashley Award in 2007 "In recognition of his distinguished contributions to understanding the brain substrates of learning and memory. Specifically, through his meticulous and diligent application of the eyeblink classical conditioning paradigm, Thompson discovered the essential role of the deep cerebellar nuclei, as an essential component of classically conditioned procedural memory formation, and that plasticity within the synapses of these nuclei represent the long-elusive memory trace that Lashley had sought." Richard Thompson died September 16, 2014, at age 84.

10	Name:	Dr. Bernhard Witkop
	Institution:	National Institutes of Health
	Year Elected:	1999
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Subdivision:	201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1917
	Death Date:	November 22, 2010

	Bernhard Witkop was a distinguished organic chemist who had made major contributions to biochemistry, pharmacology, and medical sciences. His research involved major contributions to the chemistry of familiar-sounding substances or processes, such as the isolation from the Colombian tree frog of the toxin batrachotoxin, a godsend to electrophysiologists. He made important contributions to research on antiviral agents, interferon, dopamine, genetically engineered proteins and metabolic pathways. His cyanogen bromide cleavage reaction made possible the production of the first 100 Kg of engineered insulin by Eli Lilly. In Dr. Witkop's paper "Mind Over Matter" he assumes "the uneasy role of the scientist as philosopher" and presents a scholarly and profound contribution on this topic so central to most philosophers. Later in his life Dr. Witkop dedicated efforts to historical biography. He worked at the National Institutes of Health since 1987, where he is Scholar Emeritus. A native of Germany, Dr. Witkop held Ph.D. (1940) and Sc.D. (1946) degrees from the University of Munich.