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Awards, Arrivals, and Promotions

Congratulations to the following researchers, who have recently been honored with prestigious awards: Joel Cohen has received the Golden Goose Award in honor of his work developing the first global map of human population distribution by elevation. Award winners, selected by a panel of respected ...

Newest addition to Rockefeller faculty studies how cellular metabolism contributes to disease

The most recent addition to Rockefeller’s tenure-track faculty, Kivanç Birsoy, studies the changes in cellular metabolism that occur in disease, including cancer. Currently a postdoc at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Birsoy will relocate to Rockefeller in January and establi...

Announcements

New perks, health and wellness events unveiled. Rockefeller students and employees are now eligible for a discount on Verizon FiOS service, special banking deals from Apple Bank and on mortgage rates at Chase, and car rental deals with Enterprise CarShare. For more information on perks, visit ins...

Rockefeller welcomes three new lab heads

by WYNNE PARRY In the next five months, three new laboratories will open on campus, their research centering on cellular metabolism, biological membranes, and molecular motors. Two of the new faculty recruits are tenure-track candidates who emerged as finalists in last year’s open search. The thi...

With landmark gift from Kravis Foundation, construction on the river campus begins

by AMELIA KAHANEY The first visible sign of the university’s ambitious expansion project—the construction of a new “river campus” and a 135,600 square-foot laboratory building over the FDR Drive—arrived on June 15 in the form of a small excavator and a few dozen orange and white road barri...

Smogorzewska and Tavazoie named associate professors

Agata Smogorzewska and Sohail Tavazoie, physician-scientists who joined Rockefeller in 2009, have both been promoted this year to the rank of associate professor. Dr. Smogorzewska, who studies DNA repair processes that occur during cellular replication, is head of the Laboratory of Genome Mainten...

New garden dedicated to longtime employee Lila Magie

Before retiring to Maine in 1991, Lila Magie was an indomitable force at Rockefeller for 41 years, working with five university presidents and rising from stenographer to head of non-academic personnel, and then to director of faculty administration and corporate secretary to the Board of Trustee...

New university Board members have backgrounds in biology and finance

by AMELIA KAHANEY The university’s Board of Trustees recently elected two new members: Robert K. Steel, chief executive officer of Perella Weinberg Partners, and Joan A. Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute in...

Rockefeller designated a “Milestones in Microbiology” site by the American Society for Microbiology

by AMELIA KAHANEY Infectious disease was once the most serious threat to human health. Research in microbiology changed this by revealing the responsible pathogens and producing therapies to counter their infection. For its critical contributions to this historic transition, this spring The Rocke...

Artist Isabella Kirkland donates prints to Rockefeller

by AMELIA KAHANEY The earth has lost approximately 1,000 species to extinction in the past 500 years, and scientists predict that number will multiply rapidly during this century. At the same time, thousands of species new to science are discovered each year and several million may remain to be d...

Second annual "Science Saturday" draws families for hands-on learning

In its second year, Science Saturday attendance grew by nearly a third, bringing more than 1,000 guests—over half of them children—to Rockefeller to experience a day of hands-on science activities. Jointly hosted by the Development Office’s Parents & Science initiative and the Science Outreach...

Susan King named executive director of Press

by AMELIA KAHANEY When Susan King first began her career in scientific publishing, with a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Glasgow and after a three-year postdoc at St George’s Hospital Medical School (now St George’s, University of London), she wasn’t sure what to expect of life out...

Mathematicians Steven Strogatz and Ian Stewart win Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science

by WYNNE PARRY It takes a particular breadth of mind to succeed in bridging the world of advanced science and the world of letters. But perhaps even more unusual is the mathematician who can translate complex numerical investigations into poetry, comedy, suspense, and mystery for readers untraine...

John C. Whitehead, emeritus trustee, dies at 92

by AMELIA KAHANEY John C. Whitehead, a member of the university’s Board of Trustees for nearly three decades, as well as a public servant and business leader, died in February at the age of 92. Closely identified with the partnership of Goldman Sachs, which he led for nearly a decade, Mr. Whitehe...

70 employees honored for longtime service

Two ceremonies have been held this year to commemorate years of service to the university by Rockefeller employees. In June, employees who retired in 2014 and those celebrating special anniversaries of 30 or more years were feted at an anniversary and retirement dinner in the Great Hall of Welch....

Milestones

Awarded: C. David Allis, the Jonathan Kraft Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research, presented by the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. The newly established award celebrates achievements in cancer research and includes a monetary prize of $20,000, endowed by Robert Kraft, owner of th...

Fred Bohen, longtime Rockefeller administrator, dies

by AMELIA KAHANEY Frederick M. Bohen, who was executive vice president and chief operating officer at Rockefeller for many of the years between 1990 and 2005, died March 14 at his home in Manhattan at the age of 77. During his tenure at Rockefeller, Mr. Bohen served with five university president...

Obesity researcher and former hospital physician-in-chief Jules Hirsch dies

Jules Hirsch, an early leader in the study of human metabolism, died at age 88 in Englewood, New Jersey, after a long illness. His research, conducted at The Rockefeller University, helped establish the biological underpinnings of obesity, challenging the notion that the disease results from a la...

Agata Smogorzewska, who studies DNA repair, promoted to associate professor

Agata Smogorzewska, a physician-scientist and head of the Laboratory of Genome Maintenance, has been promoted to associate professor, effective July 1. Smogorzewska came to Rockefeller as a faculty member in 2009 to study DNA repair processes that occur during cellular replication. “The genome ...

Convocation 2015

When The Rockefeller University held its first Convocation in 1959, there were only five graduates. Fifty-six years later, as of Convocation on June 11, 2015, there are now 1,178 recipients of the Rockefeller University doctor of philosophy degree. The festivities began with a graduate luncheon i...

Honorary degrees awarded to three Pearl Meister Greengard laureates

by AMELIA KAHANEY In addition to 28 students, three trailblazing women in science received degrees from Rockefeller this year. In a tradition dating back more than 50 years, the university awarded honorary doctorate of science degrees to distinguished individuals who have made notable contributio...

David Rockefeller Fellowship awarded to third-year Robert Heler, a bacteriologist

by AMELIA KAHANEY Robert Heler, a graduate fellow in Luciano Marraffini’s Laboratory of Bacteriology,has been awarded the 2015 David Rockefeller Fellowship, given each year to an outstanding third-year student for demonstrating exceptional promise in science and leadership. The fellowship was est...

David Rockefeller Award for Extraordinary Service honors founding chairs of university’s Women & Science initiative

by AMELIA KAHANEY Among the accolades for scholar-scientists, this year’s Convocation also honored four women with a different but no less significant role in the advancement of research— Lydia A. Forbes, Isabel P. Furlaud, Nancy M.Kissinger, and Sydney Roberts Shuman, the founding chairs of Ro...

Gaby Maimon and Vanessa Ruta honored with teaching awards

For Rockefeller graduate students there is labwork, and there is coursework. This year, the university recognizes two teachers who have devoted substantial time, energy, and creativity to designing and leading one of the most challenging and innovative courses within the university’s graduate cur...

Lindsay Bellani

Lindsay Bellani Presented by Leslie B. Vosshall B.S., The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Why Mosquitoes Bite Some People More than Others: Metabolic Correlates of Human Attraction in Aedes aegypti         Why do mosquitoes bite some people more than others? This question has puzzle...

Jabez Bok

Jabez Bok Presented by Sidney Strickland on behalf of Robert G. Roeder B.S., University of Wisconsin, Madison Mechanism of Action of ING4 as a Transcriptional Coactivator of p53         Jabez Bok hails from Singapore, and after earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin, ...

Christine E. Cho

Christine E. Cho Presented by Leslie B. Vosshall on behalf of Cori Bargmann Sc.B., Brown University Mechanisms of Olfactory Plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans         Although many religions warn us against fortune tellers, it’s the brain’s job to predict the future. What does a new sti...

Eliot Dow

Eliot Dow Presented by A. James Hudspeth B.S., Ohio State University Synapse Formation in the Zebrafish Lateral Line         Although our brains do not always function well, it is actually implausible that they should function at all. A human brain contains something like a hundred billion ne...

Akinori F. Ebihara

Akinori F. Ebihara Presented by Winrich Freiwald on behalf of himself and Marcelo O. Magnasco B.S., The University of Tokyo Normalization Among Heterogeneous Population Confers Stimulus Discriminability on the Macaque Face Patch Neurons         As I introduce Akinori Ebihara to you, I find ...

Clark Fisher

Clark Fisher Presented by Winrich Freiwald A.B., Princeton University Effect of Temporal and Spatial Context within the Macaque Face-Processing System         Social life relies on faces. A day like today—when lots of people come together all wearing pretty much the same outfit—would be u...

Ariel Halper-Stromberg

Ariel Halper-Stromberg Presented by Michel C. Nussenzweig B.S., University of Maryland, College Park Therapeutic Uses of Broadly Neutralizing Anti-HIV-1 Antibodies in Humanized Mice         Ari Halper-Stromberg grew up in Maryland and went to college at the University of Maryland, College Par...

Jeffrey G. Johnson

Jeffrey G. Johnson Presented by Sidney Strickland on behalf of Tom Muir B.A., Knox College Studies on the Maturation of Secreted Quorum Sensing Peptides That Regulate S. aureus Virulence         Jeffrey Johnson received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Knox College in Illinois befo...

Shaheen Kabir

Shaheen Kabir Presented by Titia de Lange B.S., Haverford College Investigating Mechanisms of Telomere End-protection         Despite being young, Shaheen Kabir’s life has already involved five continents. Born to Pakistani parents, Shaheen grew up in beautiful Tanzania. She went to Austral...

Anna Katherine Kruyer

Anna Katherine Kruyer Presented by Erin Norris on behalf of herself and Sidney Strickland B.A., Fordham College at Lincoln Center The Effect of Chronic Hypertension on Neuropathology in the TgSwDI Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease         When Anna Kruyer moved to New York City from a smal...

Johannes Larsch

Johannes Larsch Presented by Leslie B. Vosshall on behalf of Cori Bargmann M.Sc., University of Konstanz A Mechanism for Spatial Orientation Based on Sensory Adaptation in Caenorhabditis elegans         In his work on the unity of opposites, hodos ano kato, the pre-Socratic philosopher Herac...

Hyeseung Lee

Hyeseung Lee Presented by Sohail Tavazoie B.S., Ewha Womans University Identification of Tmem2 as a Sox4 Transcriptional Target Involved in Breast Cancer Metastasis         Hyeseung studied chemistry and life sciences in South Korea. In my lab, she studied how a gene called SOX4 endows cance...

Joseph M. Luna

Joseph M. Luna Presented by Robert B. Darnell on behalf of himself and Charles M. Rice B.S., Yale University A Genomic Portrait of Hepatitis C Virus and MicroRNA-122         “The crowded hall was brimming with excitement as a room full of scientists took their seats.” These prescient word...

Jennifer Zuckerman Malin

Jennifer Zuckerman Malin Presented by Shai Shaham B.A., University of Pennsylvania Components of the Ubiquitin Proteasome System are Required for the Nonapoptotic Death of the Caenorhabditis elegans Linker Cell         It is a distinct pleasure for me to be here today to participate in Jenni...

Alexander R. Nectow

Alexander R. Nectow Presented by Jeffrey M. Friedman B.S.E.S., M.S., Tufts University Functional Dissection of Brainstem Circuitry         Some of you may be familiar with the phrase “all heat and no light.” This describes a person who generates lots of energy but who illuminates very lit...

Zeeshan Ozair

Zeeshan Ozair Presented by Ali H. Brivanlou B.S., M.B., The Aga Khan University Medical College A Reductionist Approach to Modeling Human Corticogenesis         Where does the mind come from? What is the origin of our brain? Zeeshan Ozair came to me in 2009 via Abu-Dhabi and Pakistan, with a ...

Pablo Polosecki

Pablo Polosecki Presented by Winrich Freiwald Licenciado, University of Buenos Aires Specialized Signals for Spatial Attention in the Ventral and Dorsal Visual Streams         Pablo Polosecki once founded a club on campus with the purpose of discussing the foundations of science and philosoph...

Kavita Rangan

Kavita Rangan Presented by Howard C. Hang B.S., University of California, Berkeley Characterization of Bacterial Metabolites Involved in Host Pathogen Resistance         It has been a pleasure to have Kavita Rangan do her graduate thesis studies in my laboratory. Kavita is a remarkable indivi...

Jason Barzel Ross

Jason Barzel Ross Presented by Sohail Tavazoie B.S., Stanford University Molecular Determinants of Tumor Re-initiation in Breast Cancer         Jason received his undergraduate training in biology at Stanford University, where he was actively involved in stem cell research. Upon joining my la...

Joshua Salvi

Joshua Salvi Presented by A. James Hudspeth B.S., The Pennsylvania State University Mechanical Control of Sensory Hair-bundle Function         Human hearing is truly remarkable: we can detect frequencies a thousandfold as great as those measured by our other senses; we can capture sounds down...

Johannes F. Scheid

Johannes F. Scheid Presented by Michel C. Nussenzweig Member of the graduating class of 2014 Diploma, University of Arts, Berlin M.D., Humboldt University – Charite, Berlin The Antibody Response against HIV       This is the second Rockefeller graduation for Johannes Scheid, the first being f...

Roman Subbotin

Roman Subbotin Presented by Brian T. Chait B.S., M.S., Taras Shevchenko Kiev State University M.S., University of Minnesota Chemical Stabilization—A Path Towards Deciphering Protein-Protein Interactions in the Cellular Milieu     Roman Subbotin was born in Stryi in the Soviet Ukraine. He studi...

He Tian

He Tian Presented by Thomas P. Sakmar B.S., Peking University Development of Novel Chemical Biology Tools for Probing  Structure-Function Relationships in G Protein Coupled Receptors     It is a challenge to describe chemistry in narrative form. Chemistry is a way of thinking. Chemistry is intel...

Yifan Xu

Yifan Xu Presented by Jeremy Dittman on behalf of Cori Bargmann B.S., Duke University Neural Circuit Dependence of Acute and Subacute Nociception in Caenorhabditis elegans     Most grad students experience some type of pain during their thesis work. For Yifan’s thesis, she decided to work on p...

John Z. Xue

John Z. Xue Presented by Hironori Funabiki B.A., University of Cambridge Xenopus Dppa2 is a Direct Inhibitor of Microtubule Polymerization Required for Nuclear Assembly         From John Xue’s eloquent British accent, it may be hard to imagine his origin. John was born and raised in Jingbia...

Daria A. Zamolodchikov

Daria A. Zamolodchikov Presented by Sidney Strickland A.B., Princeton University A New Role for b-Amyloid in Alzheimer’s Disease: Initiation of Thrombotic and Inflammatory Processes via Coagulation Factor XII and Fibrinogen         Let’s consider American Pharoah. It takes intelligence, s...

Coming soon, to The David Rockefeller Graduate Program

As the graduating class of 2015 moves on to the next stages of life and career, the Rockefeller community welcomes the incoming group of graduate fellows. There were 689 applications received this year, and after careful consideration by the admissions committee, 81 applicants were offered admiss...

New faculty member probes actions of molecular machines in gene expression

Tiny machines, which convert chemical energy into mechanical work, drive nearly all aspects of life within a cell. Shixin Liu, a biophysicist and Rockefeller’s newest tenure-track faculty member, investigates how these individual motors interact, and, in many cases, cooperate with one another to ...

Expert in cryo-electron microscopy to join Rockefeller faculty

Thomas Walz, a structural biologist who uses cutting-edge electron microscopy techniques to better understand processes involving biological membranes, will join Rockefeller’s faculty as a tenured professor on September 1. As head of the Laboratory of Molecular Electron Microscopy, Walz will take...

Rockefeller sustainability initiatives are honored by the Association of Energy Engineers

The Rockefeller University’s multi-year initiative to reduce energy usage and carbon emissions will be honored this week with an award from the Association of Energy Engineers. The local award, for institutional energy management of the year, recognizes the consistent achievements of an entire te...

Twenty-nine students receive doctorates at Rockefeller’s 57th Convocation

At its convocation ceremony on Thursday, June 11, Rockefeller University presented doctoral degrees to 29 students. In a tradition dating back to the university’s first commencement ceremony in 1959, doctoral candidates received their degrees from their mentors. In addition, Nicole Le Douarin,...

The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation provides landmark gift of $100 Million to The Rockefeller University

New research center will help attract the best talent to make transformative discoveries Marc Tessier-Lavigne, president of The Rockefeller University, today announced a leadership gift of $100 million from The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation to help create a new laboratory building t...

Announcements

Kids welcome. In celebration of national Take Your Child to Work Day, Human Resources will host activities for 8- to 12-year-olds from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 23. Children must be registered by April 17 and must be accompanied by an adult to attend. Space is limited. For more information, call ...

Cardiologist Paul Cohen, expert in obesity and related diseases, named to faculty

More than one in three U.S. adults is obese, a condition that puts them at risk for an alarming array of health problems, from diabetes and heart disease to cancer. But while obesity brings devastating consequences for many, some escape. For a select few, obesity causes little more than sore join...

Child and Family Center to expand by five rooms

by ZACH VEILLEUX The Rockefeller University Child and Family Center, long one of the university’s most coveted perks for parents and a model for work-site child care facilities nationwide, will expand by 40 percent this year, with five new classrooms to be constructed on the second floor of the G...

New career director to help students and postdocs navigate options

by WYNNE PARRY Andrea Morris’s career in biology has had a few curves. After earning a Ph.D. in molecular biology and doing a postdoc, she took a tenure-track faculty job, teaching and running a lab at a small liberal arts college. But she ultimately gave up tenure, and the bench, to work in high...