| 1 | Name: | Dr. Mary C. Beckerle | |
| Institution: | Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah | ||
| Year Elected: | 2017 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1954 | ||
Mary Beckerle, PhD, is CEO and Director of Huntsman Cancer Institute, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center that is a leader in Cancer Genetics and Precision Prevention. She is a Distinguished Professor of Biology, Associate Vice President for Cancer Affairs, and holds the prestigious Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Utah. Beckerle earned her PhD in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and completed post-doctoral research at the University of North Carolina. An internationally recognized scientist focused on fundamental aspects of Cancer Cell Biology, Beckerle’s research program has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health. Beckerle’s laboratory has made seminal contributions toward understanding cell adhesion and cell migration. In recent years her team has focused on the mechanisms involved in communicating information from the cell surface to the cytoskeleton and the nucleus. In 2000, Beckerle was appointed as a Guggenheim Fellow and a Rothschild-Yvette Mayent Award Scholar at the Curie Institute in Paris. She received the Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology in 2001, the Sword of Hope Award from the American Cancer Society in 2004, the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the University of Utah’s highest honor, in 2007, the 2018 Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer genetics, and the YWCA Utah 2018 Outstanding Achievement Award in Medicine and Health . Beckerle has served on numerous strategic planning and peer review committees for the National Institutes of Health. She is also a respected leader in science policy and practice, having served as president of the American Society for Cell Biology and on the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research. She is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Advisory Board and serves on the Board of Directors of both Huntsman Corporation and Johnson & Johnson. In 2016, Beckerle was selected as a member of the Blue Ribbon Panel appointed to guide Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, co-chairing the Precision revention and Early Detection Working Group. She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the National Center for Biological Sciences in India, the Mechanobiology Institute in Singapore, and several National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers. Beckerle has been married to David Murrell since 1990; they have a son, David, who graduated from college in 2017. In addition to spending time with family and friends, Beckerle loves to cook, travel, garden, hike, and bike in the beautiful state of Utah. Mary Beckerle was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2017. | |||