Whitehead Interim Director David
Page named to National Academy of Sciences
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 4, 2005)—Whitehead Institute
Interim Director David
Page is one of 72 new members of the National Academy
of Sciences elected in recognition of their distinguished
and continuing achievements in original research. The
Academy also elected 18 foreign associates from 14 countries.
The election was held during the business session of
the 142nd annual meeting of the Academy. Election to
membership in the Academy is considered one of the highest
honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer.
Those elected bring the total number of active members
to 1,976.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization
of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance
of science and its use for the general welfare. It was
established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation,
signed by Abraham Lincoln, which calls on the Academy
to act as an official adviser to the federal government,
upon request, in any matter of science or technology.
Page has conducted fundamental studies of mammalian
sex chromosomes and their roles in germ cell development,
with special attention to the function, structure, and
evolution of the Y chromosome. In 2003 his laboratory
completed the sequencing of the human Y chromosome in
conjunction with the Washington University Genome Sequencing
Center. Page’s laboratory first reported DNA-based
deletion maps of the Y chromosome in 1986, comprehensive
clone-based physical maps of the chromosome in 1992,
and systematic catalogs of Y-linked genes in 1997.
In addition to his role as Interim Director of the
Whitehead Institute, Page is professor of biology at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Investigator
at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 1992, he
founded the Whitehead Task Force on Genetics and Public
Policy.
Page trained in the laboratory of David Botstein, at
MIT, while earning an M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard
Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and
Technology Program.
In 1992, Science magazine cited his Y chromosome work
as one of the top 10 Scientific Advances of the Year.
In 1997 he was awarded the Amory Prize from the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2003 he received
the Curt Stern Award from the American Society of Human
Genetics.
Page joins Whitehead Members Gerald
Fink, Rudolf
Jaenisch,
Eric Lander, Susan
Lindquist, Harvey
Lodish and Robert
Weinberg as members of the Academy.
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