Class
| • | 2. Biological Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Harald zur Hausen | | | Institution: | German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum) | | | Year Elected: | 1998 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1936 | | | Death Date: | May 28, 2023 | | | | | | |
Harald zur Hausen is a world renowned virologist who has made pioneering discoveries on viruses that cause human tumors. He made major contributions to our knowledge of the Epstein-Barr virus, the agent involved in Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. His most important discovery, for which he was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine, is the causative role of papillomaviruses in human anogenital cancer. His work has far-reaching implications for human health and well-being and provides the basis for antiviral vaccines that could prevent some of the most common human malignancies. As Director of the German Cancer Research Center since 1983, Dr. zur Hausen has had a major influence on the organization, development and support of science. He has turned this institution into a leading center for biological and clinical research. A graduate of the University of Dusseldorf (M.D., 1960), Dr. zur Hausen is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (1976); the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (1986); the German Academy of Natural Sciences (1986); the Academia Europaea (1990); the Polish Academy of Sciences (foreign member) (1991); and the Venezuelan National Academy of Medicine (1993). | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Ho-Wang Lee | | | Institution: | National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea | | | Year Elected: | 1998 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1928 | | | Death Date: | July 5, 2022 | | | | | | |
As a medical virologist, Ho-Wang Lee studied Japanese encephalitis (JE) and Korean hemorrhagic fever (KHF), now called Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The first of these was the success of tissue culture of JE virus, immune mechanism of JE and overwintering mechanisms of JE virus in Korea from 1955-68. The second of these was the isolation of etiologic agents, epidemiology and prevention of HFRS from 1969-o 2004. He isolated etiologic agents of HFRS from Apodemus mice and urban rats and named the virus Hantaan and Seoul in 1976 and 1980, respectively. He elucidated epizootiology and epidemiology of HFRS in 1979-85. Hantaan virus is the origin of genus Hantavirus and he proved world-wide distribution of hantaviruses from 1977-2000. In 1990, he and his colleagues developed a simple rapid diagnostic kit and an inactivated vaccine against HFRS. This vaccine was distributed in Asia and thereafter the number of HFRS patients decreased significantly. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Semir Zeki | | | Institution: | University College London | | | Year Elected: | 1998 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1940 | | | | | | |
Semir Zeki is professor of neurobiology at University College London. His main research interest is the organization of the primate visual brain. His early studies on the monkey showed that different visual cortical areas are specialized for different tasks of motion, color and form. This led to the influential theory of functional specialization, not localization, in cortical areas. He then used Land's retinex techniques to study the relation of visual cortical neurons to wavelength and color, which led to the idea that color vision is a construction of the brain, not the retina. Recently he has used imaging methods to show that the principle of cortical area specialization is true also in the human brain. Dr. Zeki published his first scientific paper in 1967 and since then has written over 150 papers and three books, including A Vision of the Brain (1993), Inner Vision: an exploration of art and the brain (1999) and La Quête de l'essentiel, which he co-authored with the late French painter Balthus. In 1994, he began to study the neural basis of creativity and the aesthetic appreciation of art. In 2001, he founded the Institute of Neuroesthetics, based mainly in Berkeley, California. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (London), a member of the Academia Europeae and of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. His awards include the Minerva Foundation Prize, the LVMH Science pour l'art Prize, the Rank Prize in opto-electronics, the Electronic Imaging Award, the Koetser Prize and the King Faisal International Prize in Biology. | |
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