VOLUME 13, NUMBER 03 • OCTOBER 19, 2001

Women & Science hosts fall breakfast

From left to right: Pat Cloherty, speakers Nina Bhardwaj and Robert Darnell, and W&S breakfast host Alair Townsend

On Wed., Oct. 3, The Rockefeller University's Women & Science initiative held its fall breakfast forum for an audience of 200.

The event featured Nina Bhardwaj, associate professor for clinical investigation, and Rober Darnell, professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-Oncology, speaking on "New Vaccine Strategies: Priming the Immune System to Battle Cancer and Infection."

A highlight of the breakfast was the announcement by Patricia Cloherty, former unversity trustee and founding W&S Committee member, that she would contribute a $1 million challenge grant toward the university's $3 million fundraising effort to establish a professorship for a world-class woman scientist to be recruited to Rockefeller. The professorship will be named in honor of Rebecca Lancefield (1895-1982), a microbiologist who served on The Rockefeller University's faculty for many decades (more detail will be provided in an upcoming News& Notes story).

The Women & Science initiativ has grown into one of New York City's most popular philanthropic forums. Last year, Partners in Discovery raised $800,000, more than twice the amount from the year prior. These funds will support the research of four women Ph.D. students and four postdocoral fellows.

From left to right: Sarah Shinn Pratt, W&S Committee and RU Council member Ludmila Schwarzenberg Hess, Augusta Gross and Joan Shapiro Green.	W&S postdoctoral fellows (from left to right): Francesca Maria Spagnoli, Ingrid Mecklenbrauker, Stacie Grossman and Judith Recht