News & HighlightsNews
Leslie Vosshall granted tenure
by ZACH VEILLEUX The university’s Board of Trustees has granted tenure to Leslie B. Vosshall, head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, and she has been promoted from associate professor to become the Robin Chemers Neustein Professor. The Board approved the promotion at its March 10 m...
Ted Scovell named new director of Science Outreach
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN Textbooks and Wikipedia are fine for facts, but to really learn science, you need access to a lab. In his new position as director of Rockefeller University’s Science Outreach Program, Ted Scovell, a former high school teacher himself, hopes to give new generations of youn...
Junior gardeners get their hands dirty
The azaleas may be the standout botanical feature on Rockefeller’s campus at the moment, but be on the lookout for new additions. Junior gardeners at the Child and Family Center have begun planting gardens around the westernmost of two fountains on the north side of Caspary Auditorium’s blue dom...
Martin Rees is 2009 Lewis Thomas Prize winner
by JOSEPH BONNER For as long as humans have gazed at the night sky, we have questioned our place in the universe and how and where it all began. Martin Rees, the celebrated British cosmologist and astrophysicist, has chronicled scientists’ speculations about the cosmos through seven volumes of po...
Milestones
Awarded: Nam-Hai Chua, the Lawrence Bogorad Award for Excellence in Plant Biology Research from the American Society of Plant Biologists. Dr. Chua, Andrew W. Mellon Professor and head of the Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology, is honored for his development of fundamental tools essential to co...
Rockefeller immunologist receives Gates Foundation Grand Challenges grant
Rockefeller University has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Jean-Laurent Casanova, head of the Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, aim...
New faculty member seeks secrets of intestinal immunity
by ZACH VEILLEUX The skin may be our first line of defense against infection, but its job is easy compared to our intestines. There the body must cope with a constant stream of foreign antigens from our food as well as a flourishing ecosystem of bacteria, viruses and parasites. It must not only f...
Paul Nurse to resign as Rockefeller president to become president of Royal Society of London in December
Paul Nurse, Rockefeller University’s president since 2003, will leave the university in December 2010 to assume the presidency of the Royal Society of London. The Royal Society of London is the British equivalent of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The president of the Royal Society acts...
Announcements
University Web site is redesigned. Communications and Public Affairs and Information Technology have launched phase one of the university’s new Web site design, including the new home page as well as the Scientists & Research, Newswire and About sections. The design overhaul will continue through...
The Rockefeller University's finances
This is a reproduction of a memo sent to campus from President Paul Nurse on Monday, March 8. A year ago, during a period of worldwide economic turmoil, I wrote to you about the university’s finances. In July we held our last “town hall” meeting when I updated the community on developments. I...
Physics-biology symposium kicks off 
joint Rockefeller/IAS initiative
by THANIA BENIOS An inaugural symposium named for Joshua Lederberg and John von Neumann, held in December at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, was the first of a series of collaborative events between Rockefeller University and the IAS to be held regularly as part of a jo...
Faculty search benefits from down economy
by ZACH VEILLEUX As the fifth year of the university’s open faculty search enters its final round, applicants are up by 60 percent compared to fall 2008, and members of the search committee say the pool is stronger and more diverse than it has been in the past. A total of 582 people submitted ...
Trustee Christopher Browne dies at 62
by JOSEPH BONNER Christopher H. Browne, a member of The Rockefeller University Board of Trustees for the last 12 years, died of a heart attack on December 13, 2009. He was 62 years old. Mr. Browne joined The Rockefeller University Council, an international advisory group whose members serve as...
The CFC hits the books
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN Story time has been reimagined. With money raised from a raffle held last winter, the Child and Family Center has revitalized and reorganized its collection of children’s books and established a dedicated reading area for the center’s 100-plus children. CFC staff welcome...
Rockefeller University Hospital celebrates 100 years
Later this year, on October 26, the Rockefeller University Hospital will celebrate its 100th birthday. In the century since its founding, more than 100 notable discoveries have been associated with the hospital, research that has bridged the work of physicians and scientists and addressed some of...
Bright lights, safe city
Last December — just in time for the late-winter onslaught of driving snow and slippery ice — Plant Operations replaced the 50-year-old streetlamps lining the university’s main drive up to Founder’s Hall with new ones outfitted with brighter, LED bulbs. The new fixtures, which use about 90 p...
Milestones
Awarded: Paul Bieniasz, the 2010 Eli Lilly and Company Research Award from the American Society for Microbiology, the society’s oldest and most prestigious prize. Dr. Bieniasz, head of Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Retrovirology and an investigator at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and t...
Announcements
Feeding holiday hunger. In conjunction with the student-initiated holiday food collection drive, which ran from December 1 to 18, Restaurant Associates has provided several turkeys and traditional holiday side dishes to City Harvest for its holiday dinners served to the homeless and hungry at sou...
University receives nearly $27m in ‘stimulus’ grants
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN Investigators at The Rockefeller University have so far been awarded 41 federal grants and supplemental awards through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) — the so-called “stimulus” legislation passed by Congress last winter. The awards — 40 fro...
William Huyett joins Board of Trustees
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN William I. Huyett Jr., a director at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company and a trustee of the Marine Biological Laboratory, has joined the university’s Board of Trustees. A senior executive in McKinsey’s pharma-medical products practice, Mr. Huyett was elect...
Aetna network, Cornell psychiatrists expand reach of health plan
by ZACH VEILLEUX Several improvements to the university’s self-insured health plan and flexible spending accounts, which the university’s Human Resources Office says will enhance the plans, reduce costs to the university and to plan participants and help eliminate some paperwork, have been impl...
Burglary in Bronk; fire in Flexner
Burglary in Bronk; fire in Flexner Alert employees help contain damage from two separate incidents in November by TALLEY HENNING BROWN Two incidents on campus last month demonstrated the importance of campus participation in notifying Security personnel to potential problems. A burglary in Detlev...
Pearl Meister Greengard Prize honors Australian geneticist
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN Women’s work. From left, Paul Greengard, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Suzanne Cory, Wafaa El-Sadr and Paul Nurse. This year’s Pearl Meister Greengard Prize recognizes Suzanne Cory, an Australian geneticist whose work has included significant revelations about the workings of t...
Boil, boil, toil and trouble
New boiler to increase efficiency of university’s heating and cooling by TALLEY HENNING BROWN Boiler number four. The new Cleaver-Brooks boiler in its new home. Below the buildings of the south campus, three levels underground and reached by a labyrinth of stairways, are the millions of pipes, pi...
Rockefeller stem cell lines among first to be NIH-approved
by JOSEPH BONNER Two human embryonic stem cell lines derived at Rockefeller are among the first to be approved for use in federally funded research since the National Institutes of Health adopted new guidelines in July 2009. The approval means that cell lines derived at the university can be mad...
Philip Siekevitz, pioneer in cell biology, dies at 91
by JOSEPH BONNER Philip Siekevitz was a passionate New Yorker. Through a nearly century-long life, he was an active participant in the city’s cultural, music, art and architecture scenes — and, especially, in its science. Professor Emeritus Philip Siekevitz, a member of The Rockefeller Un...
Microchemist S. Theodore Bella dies at 88
S. Theodore Bella, retired long-time microanalyst at The Rockefeller University, died Monday, November 23 at his Florida home after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease and cardiac issues. He was 88. Mr. Bella operated a laboratory in Flexner Hall for 41 years, using emerging techniques in ...
Milestones
Awarded: Michael Crickmore, Grand Prize in the 2009 GE & Science Prize for Young Life Scientists, an essay competition. Dr. Crickmore, a postdoctoral fellow in Leslie B. Vosshall’s Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, won for his essay titled “The Molecular Basis of Size Differences,” bas...
Rockefeller joins first national research study recruitment registry
Rockefeller University has joined more than 50 research institutions around the United States in making information about its clinical research trials available on ResearchMatch, the country’s first registry for recruiting research participants. ResearchMatch.org, which is a not-for-profit Web si...
Announcements
Short sharp science. Communications and Public Affairs has added a Twitter feed to the university’s social media presence (see Rockefeller’s Facebook profile and YouTube channel). To stay up-to-date on the latest findings from Rockefeller labs, visit twitter.com/RockefellerUniv. 2009 golf outing...
Labs take shape in Collaborative Research Center
For more photos and video of the construction progress, visit crc.rockefeller.edu. A little over two years after the jackhammers and bobcats first went to work on Smith Hall, the end is in sight, and the work on the Collaborative Research Center has progressed both on time and on budget. By late ...
High honors for Friedman, Fuchs
The scientific community’s spotlight was focused on Rockefeller University at the start of this academic year when two faculty members — Marilyn M. Simpson Professor Jeffrey M. Friedman and Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor Elaine Fuchs — each received two highly prestigious prizes. In June, Dr....
Cost containment measures
This message is reprinted from a letter sent to campus via e-mail on October 28. As part of the cost containment initiative that the administration launched as a consequence of the economic downturn, we have recently examined the range of events held annually on campus. We have decided to make so...
Environmental health and safety program wins award
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN On the safe side. The Office of Laboratory Safety and Environmental Health, from left to right: James Gugluzza, Amy Wilkerson, Anthony Santoro, Rebecca Lonergan, Frank Schaefer, Anthony Harper, Gaitree McNab, Beth Fitzgerald and Elsie Calo. Probing the depths of human dise...
Alumnus Robert Sapolsky honored with 2008 Lewis Thomas Prize
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN It is a rare child who dreams of growing up to be a mountain gorilla. When, for young Robert Morris Sapolsky, such lofty aspirations proved less than feasible, he decided on the next most exciting life — becoming a scientist. Upon graduating with a Ph.D. from The Rockefell...
Tenure awarded to RNA researcher Thomas Tuschl
by THANIA BENIOS Biochemist Thomas Tuschl, head of Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of RNA Molecular Biology, has been awarded tenure and promoted to professor. Dr. Tuschl, who studies the mechanisms by which RNA can regulate genes, has been instrumental in uncovering the intricate roles playe...
New measures tighten ship on security protocols
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN At the gates, behind the cameras and at every electronic lock, campus security is watching. And since last winter, they’ve been watching a little more closely. In an effort to patch gaps in the university’s security protocols, Director of Security James Rogers, in conjun...
New library Web site launches
by TALLEY HENNING BROWNThe university’s library has a rich history — it has been the campus repository for scientific journals and textbooks since it opened in 1906. But while once it was mostly accessed via a reading room on the first floor of Founder’s Hall, today the gateway to that reposit...
Milestones
Awarded:Sreekanth H. Chalasani and Shai Shaham, finalists in the 2009 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. Dr. Chalasani, a postdoc in Cori Bargmann’s Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior, will receive a grant of $5,000. Dr. Shaham, head of the Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, will r...
Elaine Fuchs receives National Medal of Science
Elaine Fuchs, Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor and head of the Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at Rockefeller University, has been named a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the White House announced today. The medal is the nation’s highest scientific honor. Fuchs,...
Tenure awarded to RNA researcher Thomas Tuschl
Thomas Tuschl, a Rockefeller University biochemist interested in the mechanisms by which RNA can regulate genes, has been awarded tenure and promoted to professor. The university’s board of trustees approved the appointment earlier this year. “Rockefeller is known for its bold and innovative re...
Announcements
Coming soon, to The David Rockefeller Graduate Program Plans for Convocation kept many offices busy this spring, but behind the scenes, another group was already planning for the fall. Rockefeller’s application screening committee pored over 675 applications of potential new students, eventually ...
Convocation 2009
2009 is a landmark year for science. The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, father of evolutionary biology, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his classic text On the Origin of Species, this year is being marked with tributes across the world. It is also a milestone ye...
Cech and Greenberg presented with honorary degrees
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN Generations of new scientists have been affected by the work of Thomas R. Cech and Maurice R. Greenberg. Dr. Cech, former president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a dedicated teacher for over 30 years, has long been an advocate for the advancement of young scie...
Fifth annual teaching awards honor Hudspeth and Nottebohm
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN Those who can, teach. From left, Fernando Nottebohm, Paul Nurse and A. James Hudspeth at the Convocation Luncheon. While more than 1,000 students have braved the rigors of scientific pursuit to earn Rockefeller University doctorates, the faculty who mentored them have brav...
Sarah Wacker named 2009 David Rockefeller Fellow
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN When it came time to choose a graduate school, Sarah Wacker’s method looked a little like a game of darts. Certain that she wanted to continue her study of proteins in a lively urban environment, she applied to what she considered the best school in every major city across...
Convocation 2009
Following tradition, faculty mentors gave congratulatory tributes to this year’s graduates. Printed here are the transcripts of those speeches, as they were read on June 11. Three members of the class of 2009 — Taulant Bacaj, Sarah Garrett Injac and Satoshi Yoshimura — were unable to attend th...
Sourabh Banerjee
B.Sc., St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi M.Sc., Indian Institute of Technology Studies of G Protein Coupled Receptors Incorporated into a Novel, Nanoscale, Membrane-mimetic System presented by Thomas P. Sakmar Sourabh Banerjee joined my laboratory in 2004 as a graduate student in the Tri...
Cameron D. Bess
B.S., University of California, Santa Cruz Analysis of Cellular Factors Involved in Adeno-associated Virus Type 2 Entry presented by Sanford M. Simon As an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he studied yeast genetics, Cameron Bess was the first in his family to atten...
Kıvanç Birsoy
B.S., Bilkent University Transcriptional Regulation of Adipocyte Function presented by Jeffrey M. Friedman Michaelangelo described his craft as follows: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” This description well describes our experience as biologists. The marble is t...
Prabhjot Singh Dhadialla*
B.S., B.A., University of Rochester A Role for Adult Stem Cells and Tumor Necrosis Factor in Peripheral Nerve Development presented by Sidney Strickland As science has accelerated the acquisition of information, the processing of this information has become a major challenge. How does one sort th...
Nadya Dimitrova
Sc.B., Brown University Characterization of a Novel 53BP1-dependent Mechanism That Promotes Nonhomologous End Joining of Deprotected Telomeres by Increasing Chromatin Mobility presented by Titia de Lange Nadya Dimitrova was born and raised in Bulgaria. Like many former Soviet countries, Bulgaria ...
Stefano Di Talia
Laurea, University of Naples Federico II Cell Size Control and Asymmetric Cell Fates in Start of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cell Cycle presented by Frederick R. Cross (on behalf of himself and Eric D.  Siggia) Stefano Di Talia came to Rockefeller with a strong background in physics. He chose to...
Holger L.J. Dormann
Diplom, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen Regulation of Heterochromatin Protein 1 by Phosphorylation of Histone H3 and the HP1 Hinge Domain presented by C. David Allis Holger Dormann came to the Allis laboratory as a well-trained cell biologist, having received his undergraduate training in T...
Ben Drapkin*
B.S., Yale University Peak Mitotic Cyclin Permits Mitotic Exit presented by Frederick R. Cross Ben Drapkin, a student in the M.D.-Ph.D. program, decided to carry out his Ph.D. work in my laboratory, with the aim of carrying out quantitative studies on the control of mitosis, the final step in cel...
Elizabeth M. Duncan
A.B., Dartmouth College Regulated Histone H3 Proteolysis during Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation presented by C. David Allis Elizabeth Duncan came to Rockefeller from Dartmouth College, where she graduated with honors (cum laude) in English and flirted with a possible career in medicine....
Robert R. Flavell*
B.A., Wesleyan University Novel Interactions of the Hormone Leptin Revealed by PET Imaging in Rodents and Rhesus Macaques presented by Tom W. Muir Rob Flavell has been associated with my lab since the fading days of the Clinton administration. A lot has happened since then. He graduated from Wesl...
Michael Gelfand*
B.S., M.S., Yale University A Model of the Production of Spontaneous Otoacoustic Emission in the Tokay Gecko presented by A. James Hudspeth It’s my very considerable pleasure to recognize the incipient doctor, Michael Gelfand, who, like other members of our group works on the process of hearing. ...
Elizabeth A. George Cisar
B.S., The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Mechanism of Signal Transduction by the Staphylococcus aureus Quorum Sensing Receptor AgrC presented by Tom W. Muir Elizabeth George Cisar joined our graduate program right out of high school. Prior to high school, she’d actually graduated from...
Doruk Gölcü
B.S., Bilkent University Perceptual Learning of Object Shape presented by Charles D. Gilbert Doruk Gölcü came to Rockefeller after receiving an undergraduate degree in the department of molecular biology and genetics at Bilkent University in Anakara, Turkey. Doruk’s work at Rockefeller involved...
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