1 | Name: | Dr. Lucy Shapiro | |
Institution: | Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine | ||
Year Elected: | 2003 | ||
Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
Subdivision: | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | ||
Residency: | Resident | ||
Living? : | Living | ||
Birth Date: | 1940 | ||
Lucy Shapiro received her Ph.D. in molecular biology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1966. She joined the faculty of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1967 and served as chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology (1977-86), Kramer Professor of Molecular Biology (1977-86) and director of the Division of Biological Sciences (1981-86). In 1986 she moved to Columbia University as the Higgins Professor of Microbiology and chairman of the Department of Microbiology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Crossing to the other coast in 1989 to the Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Shapiro became the founder and chairman of its Department of Developmental Biology, and the Joseph D. Grant Professor of Developmental Biology. She is currently Stanford's Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research, and, as of 2001, director of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. Lucy Shapiro cultivated a single organism into one of the most powerful experimental systems for understanding the control of the bacterial cell cycle and the establishment of cell fate. Her research has yielded fundamental insights into the bacterial cell as an integrated system in which the transcriptional circuitry is interwoven with the three-dimensional deployment of regulatory and morphological proteins. Her genome-wide transcriptional analysis revealed basic rules for bacterial cell cycle control. In pioneering work, Dr. Shapiro initiated the "cell biology" of prokaryotes, resulting in the first demonstration that proteins are dynamically localized in the cell, adding a spatial dimension to regulatory networks. Dr. Shapiro is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. She was awarded the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the Natural Academy of Sciences, the 2010 Abbott-ASM Lifetime Acheivement Award, the 2012 Horwitz Prize, and the 2012 National Medal of Science. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2003. |