Board of Directors

Bruce Alberts, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and BioPhysics
University of California-San Francisco

Bruce Alberts, a prominent biochemist with a strong commitment to the improvement of science education, began service as editor-in-chief of Science on March 1, 2008. Dr. Alberts is also a professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California-San Francisco, a position he returned to in 2005 after serving two six-year terms as the president of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

During his tenure at the NAS, Dr. Alberts was instrumental in developing the landmark National Science Education standards that have been implemented in school systems nationwide. The type of “science as inquiry” teaching we need, says Dr. Alberts, emphasizes “logical, hands-on problem solving, and it insists on having evidence for claims that can be confirmed by others. It requires work in cooperative groups, where those with different types of talents can discover them – developing self confidence and an ability to communicate effectively with others.”

Dr. Alberts is also noted as one of the original authors of The Molecular Biology of the Cell, a preeminent textbook in the field now in its fifth edition. For the period 2000 to 2009, he serves as the co-chair of the InterAcademy Council, a new organization in Amsterdam governed by the presidents of 15 national academies of sciences and established to provide scientific advice to the world.

Committed in his international work to the promotion of the “creativity, openness and tolerance that are inherent to science,” Dr. Alberts believes that “scientists all around the world must now band together to help create more rational, scientifically-based societies that find dogmatism intolerable.”

Widely recognized for his work in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology, Dr. Alberts has earned many honors and awards, including 15 honorary degrees. He currently serves on the advisory boards of more than 25 non-profit institutions.  He joined the BWF Board on October 2009.

J. Michael Bishop, M.D.
Director
G.W. Hooper Research Foundation

Prior to joining the G.W. Hooper Research Foundation, Dr. Bishop was chancellor, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor, and University Professor at the University of California-San Francisco.  He was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, and educated at Gettysburg College and Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Bishop began his research career working on the replication of poliovirus.  After arriving in San Francisco, he shifted his attention to Rous sarcoma virus, hoping to explore the fundamental mechanisms of tumorigenesis.  In 1970, he was joined by Dr. Harold Varmus.  Together, they directed the research that led to the discovery of proto-oncogenes – normal genes that can be converted to cancer genes by genetic damage.  This work eventually led to the recognition that all cancer probably arises from damage to normal genes, and provided new strategies for the detection and treatment of cancer.  Drs. Bishop and Varmus have shared numerous awards for this work, including the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and both have received the National Medal of Science.   Dr. Bishop has devoted his subsequent research to the study of proto-oncogenes – their functions in normal cells and the manner in which they become cancer genes.  He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.  Dr. Bishop joined the BWF Board in October 2007.

John E. Burris, Ph.D.
President
Burroughs Wellcome Fund

John E. Burris became president of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund in July 2008.  He is the former president of Beloit College. Prior to his appointment at Beloit in 2000, Dr. Burris served for eight years as director and CEO of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass. From 1984 to 1992 he was at the National Research Council/National Academies where he served as the executive director of the Commission on Life Sciences.

A native of Wisconsin, he received an A.B. in biology from Harvard University in 1971, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison in an M.D.-Ph.D. program, and received a Ph.D. in marine biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego in 1976. A professor of biology at the Pennsylvania State University from 1976 to 1985, he held an adjunct appointment there until coming to Beloit.  His research interests were in the areas of marine and terrestrial plant physiology and ecology.

He has served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences and is or has been a member of a number of distinguished scientific boards and advisory committees including the Grass Foundation, the Stazione Zoologica “Anton Dohrn” in Naples, Italy, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, Japan. He has also served as a consultant to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Science and Human Values.

Carlos J. Bustamante, Ph.D. (Chair)
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Luis Alvarez Professor of Physics and
Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California-Berkeley

Dr. Bustamante received his B.S. degree from Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru, his masters in biochemistry from San Marcos University, and his Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of California-Berkeley. Dr. Bustamante is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, Physics, and Chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley. His research is focused on the structural characterization of nucleo-protein assemblies. Before moving to Berkeley, he was an HHMI investigator and Professor at the University of Oregon. Dr. Bustamante served on BWF’s Interfaces Advisory Committee from 2001 to 2003 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. He joined the BWF board in 2004.

Geoffrey Gerber, Ph.D.
TWIN Capital Management, Inc.

Dr. Gerber founded TWIN in 1990 and is the president and chief investment officer overseeing the entire quantitative investment process and general management of the firm.   Recognized as a specialist in institutional quantitative investment management, he is often quoted in the financial press.  Two of his more recent publications appear in Market Neutral: State-of-the-Art Strategies for Every Market Environment as a chapter entitled “Using a Nonparametric Approach to Market Neutral Investing” and in Global Asset Allocation as a chapter entitled “Equity Style Allocations: Timing Between Growth & Value”.  Outside of TWIN, Dr. Gerber is a faculty member for the Aresty Institute’s Wharton Executive Education Program on Investment Strategies and Portfolio Management.  He also serves as chairman of the Pittsburgh United Jewish Federation Foundation Investment Committee and is the chair of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investment Committee.  Dr. Gerber holds a Ph.D. in Finance and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Economics from the State University of New York at Buffalo where he graduated summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  He joined the BWF board in October 2007.

Phil Gold, M.D., Ph.D.
Douglas G. Cameron Professor of Medicine
McGill University

Dr. Gold received his undergraduate, graduate and medical degrees from McGill University of Quebéc. He is a fellow in the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada and of the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Quebéc. He has been awarded a Mastership of the American College of Physicians and received the Annual Research Award of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, among many others. He is currently director of the Clinical Investigator Program of the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada, for McGill University. Dr. Gold teaches in the Departments of Oncology, Physiology, and Medicine. He joined the BWF board in February 2003.

George Langford, Ph.D.
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Syracuse University

Dr. Langford is the dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Distinguished Professor of Biology.  He was formerly the Ernest Everett Just Professor of Natural Sciences and Professor of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and adjunct professor of Physiology at the Dartmouth Medical Center from 1991 until 2005.  Dr. Langford received his Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology and completed postdoctoral training as an NIH fellow in the cell biology program at the University of Pennsylvania. He was professor of physiology in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill before joining the faculty at Dartmouth College.  A cell biologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Langford studies cellular mechanisms of learning and memory. His research program seeks to understand how the brain remembers and how this process is impaired by Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.  In 1998, he was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the National Science Board (NSB), the governing board of the National Science Foundation, to advise the president and Congress on national science policy. He served on the NSB from 1998 to 2004, as Chair of the NSB Education and Human Resources Committee from 2002 to 2004 and as vice-chair for the NSB National Workforce Taskforce Subcommittee from 1999 to 2004.  Dr. Langford joined the BWF board in February 2008.

Carla Shatz, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology and Neurobiology
Director, Bio-X
Stanford University

Carla Shatz is a professor of biology and neurobiology and director of Bio-X. Dr. Shatz’s research focuses on the development of the mammalian visual system, with an overall goal of better understanding brain wiring and developmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, and also for understanding how the nervous and immune systems interact.

Dr. Shatz graduated from Radcliffe College in 1969 with a B.A. in Chemistry. She was honored with a Marshall Scholarship to study at University College London, where she received an M.Phil. in Physiology in 1971. In 1976, she received a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Harvard Medical School, where she studied with Nobel Laureates David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel. During this period, she was appointed as a Harvard Junior Fellow. From 1976 to 1978 she obtained postdoctoral training with Dr. Pasko Rakic in the Department of Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School. In 1978, Dr. Shatz moved to Stanford University, where she attained the rank of Professor of Neurobiology in 1989. In 1992, she moved her laboratory to the University of California, Berkeley, where she was Professor of Neurobiology and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2000, she assumed the Chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School as the Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology.

Dr. Shatz received the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award in 1985, the Silvo Conte Award from the National Foundation for Brain Research in 1993, the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Health and Education in 1995, the Alcon Award for Outstanding Contributions to Vision Research in 1997, the Bernard Sachs Award from the Child Neurology Society in 1999, the Weizmann Institute Women and Science Award in 2000 and the Gill Prize in Neuroscience in 2006. In 1992, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1995 to the National Academy of Sciences, in 1997 to the American Philosophical Society, and in 1999 to the Institute of Medicine. In 2009 she received the Salpeter Lifetime achievement award from the Society for Neuroscience.  She joined the BWF Board on October 2009.

Jerome F. Strauss, III, M.D., Ph.D.
Dean, School of Medicine
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs
Virginia Commonwealth University

Dr. Strauss is dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and executive vice president for medical affairs for the VCU Health System. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and was awarded the Transatlantic Medal of the British Endocrine Society, among many other awards. Prior to his appointment at VCU, he was the associate dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the associate chairman of the Penn’s School of Medicine's department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Strauss was the founding director of the Center for Research on Reproduction and Women's Health at Penn's Medical Center. Dr. Strauss received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his graduate and medical degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the BWF board in February 2003.

Judith L. Swain, M.D.
Executive Director, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (A*STAR)
Professor of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Adjunct Professor of Medicine
University of California-San Diego

Dr. Swain received her undergraduate degree at the University of California - Los Angeles and her medical degree from the University of California - San Diego. She completed her training in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Prior to her position at UCSD, she served as Chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University, and as Professor of Medicine and Genetics and Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is widely known in the field of molecular cardiology and held continuous research funding from the NIH for over 20 years, including an NIH M.E.R.I.T. Award for her work on the developmental biology of the cardiovascular system. Her current research interests center on human performance in extreme environments and extreme human performance. She co-directs a NASA center on space biological technologies and is an advisor to the Defense Advanced Sciences Project Agency. She is a member of the American Association of Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Institute of Medicine, among other honorary associations. She joined the BWF board in February 2003.

Chris Viehbacher
Chief Executive Officer
Sanofi-Aventis

Chris Viehbacher is the chief executive officer for the Paris-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis.  Prior to his appointment at Sanofi-Aventis, Mr. Viehbacher was the president of pharmaceutical operations North America, at GlaxoSmithKline, and a member of its board of directors.  After beginning his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, he spent two decades in the Wellcome group, GlaxoWellcome then GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he acquired broad international experience in different positions across Europe (Germany, France, and Great Britain) and in the United States and Canada. He is both a graduate in Commerce of the Queens University and a certified public accountant.  In 2003, he received the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian honor.

Dyann F. Wirth, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Director, Harvard Malaria Initiative
Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Wirth directs the Harvard Malaria Initiative.  Her work has focused on the mechanisms of drug resistance and her group was the first to discover multidrug resistance mechanisms in these organisms.  Her current work includes both fundamental investigation and field-based studies, primarily in Africa.  Dr. Wirth graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin, spent one year as a Fulbright Fellow, and then completed her Ph.D. in cell biology and virology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  She was awarded a Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship for her postdoctoral work in molecular biology at Harvard.  She joined the faculty of Harvard School of Public Health in 1982 and was promoted to full professor in 1990.  Dr. Wirth is the past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.  She has served on numerous committees and advising boards, including those for the Institute of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and Burroughs Wellcome Fund. In 2004, she was elected to The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Wirth is codirector of the Harvard University Global Infectious Diseases Program.  She is Senior Associate Member at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and co-director of the Broad’s Infectious Disease Initiative. At the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Wirth is the Richard Pearson Strong Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases.  Dr. Wirth joined the BWF board in October 2007.

Stephen D. Corman
Founder PharmanLink

Mr. Corman is a graduate of Indiana University and a certified public accountant. He has worked for Price Waterhouse and as chief financial officer and treasurer of Cooper, USA Inc., which merged with Burroughs Wellcome Co. in 1975. Mr. Corman joined the company and was named vice president of finance in 1986 and chief financial officer in 1989. After Burroughs Wellcome Co. was acquired by Glaxo Inc. in 1995, he founded Pharmalink, and he remains a board member and consultant to the company. Mr. Corman served on BWF's board from 1990 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2007.

Philip R. Tracy
Of Counsel
Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, L.L.P.

Mr. Tracy received his undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska and law degree from George Washington University. He joined Burroughs Wellcome Co. in 1974 as assistant general counsel, and he served as the company's president and chief executive officer from 1989 until its sale to Glaxo in 1995. Mr. Tracy currently is associated with the North Carolina-based law firm of Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, L.L.P. and is a Venture Partner with InterSouth Partners, an early stage Venture Fund located in Durham, North Carolina. He serves on the board of directors of several companies and non-profit organizations. Mr. Tracy served on the BWF board from 1989-1996 and again from 2001-2008.