Koch and Massey Join Rockefeller University Board of Trustees

Philanthropist David H. Koch and Morehouse College President Walter E. Massey have been elected to the board of trustees of The Rockefeller University, a graduate institution specializing in biomedical research.

“We are pleased that David Koch and Walter Massey join the board bringing scientific and administrative expertise to the university,” says Richard M. Furlaud, chairman of the board.

Koch served as a member of the university’s council, which promotes recognition and support of the institution’s research and educational efforts, from 1984 to 1996. While director of the National Science Foundation, Massey gave the keynote address at the 1992 dedication of the university’s newly opened John D. Rockefeller Jr. and David Rockefeller Research Building.

“As members of The Rockefeller University community, our trustees are enormously helpful in assisting in our efforts to develop new understandings of health and disease. We welcome their commitment and support,” says Torsten N. Wiesel, M.D., president of the university.

Koch

Koch is executive vice president of chemical technology of Koch Industries Inc., a diversified energy company founded by his father, Fred C. Koch, who invented a refining process. Koch received a bachelor of science degree and a master of science degree, both in chemical engineering in 1962 and 1963, respectively, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

After working in research and development at Amicon Corporation in Cambridge, Mass., Arthur D. Little Inc. in Boston and Halcon International Inc. in New York City from 1963 to 1970, he joined Koch Engineering Company Inc., a subsidiary of Koch Industries, where he served progressively as technical service manager, vice president and president, until 1980. Concurrently, he was president of Koch Membrane Systems from 1977 to 1980 and vice president of research for Koch Industries from 1979 to 1981. He assumed his current position at Koch Industries, where he is a member of its board of directors and is responsible for the Chemical Technology Group, composed of eight equipment manufacturing companies.

He is a member of the board of trustees of New York University Medical Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the House Ear Institute and Guggenheim Museum. Koch is a governor of New York Hospital and a member of the six other board of directors including those of the American Museum of Natural History, Aspen Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Research Laboratory, Earthwatch, Institute of Human Origins and American Ballet Theatre, of whose board he is vice chairman. Koch also is a member of the corporation at MIT, the chairman’s council of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the boards of the Whitehead Institute and the public television station WGBH, and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.

Massey

Massey received his bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics from Morehouse in 1958 and earned master’s and doctorate degrees in physics from Washington University in 1966.

From 1968 to 1970, Massey served as assistant professor of physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana and later became professor of physics and then dean of the college at Brown University. In 1979, Massey became director of the Argonne National Laboratory. In 1984, he assumed the position of vice president of the University of Chicago, both for research and for the Argonne National Laboratory. In 1991, President George Bush appointed Massey as director of the National Science Foundation, the U.S. government’s agency for support of research and education in mathematics, science and engineering. From 1993 to 1995, he served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of California System.

Massey is on the board of the Commonwealth Fund and the president’s advisory board of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has served as chairman and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as vice president of the American Physical Society, as a member of the National Science Board and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He has served on the boards of the Hewlett Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Rand Corporation as well as the boards of the San Francisco Symphony, the Chicago Symphony and the United Way of Chicago. Presently, he is a director of Motorola, Amoco and Bank of America.