November 6, 2007

Two Chemistry Department alumni recently were elected to the National Academy of Science.  Chi Van Dang (Ph.D. ’78, Yang) was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in October 2006 and Stephen C. Kowalczykowski (Ph.D. ’76, Steinhardt) was elected to membership of the National Academy of Sciences in May 2007.  Election to these prestigious bodies, one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a scientist, affirms their remarkable contributions to science as well as to the education of generations of scientists.

Chi Van Dang is the first Chemistry Department alumnus to be elected to the Institute of Medicine of the NAS.  Chi oversees the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, is Professor of Medicine, Pathology, Oncology and Professor of Cell Biology (with joint appointments in molecular biology and genetics), and is currently Vice-Dean for Research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He is Senior Editor of the journal, Cancer Research, and Associate Editor of the journals Current Cancer Therapy Reviews and Journal of Molecular Medicine.  After obtaining his Ph.D. with distinction at Georgetown, he earned his M.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 1982.  The title of his Ph.D. thesis was “Structural and functional analyses of rat liver aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase complex.”  More information on Chi may be found at http://myprofile.cos.com/cvdang.

Stephen C. Kowalczykowski was elected a member of National Academy of Sciences in May 2007.  Steve currently holds the title of Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and is director of the Center for Genetics and Development at the University of California at Davis. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The title of Steve’s Ph.D. thesis is “Physical-Chemical Studies of Sickle Cell Hemoglobin.”  More information on Steve may be found at http://microbiology.ucdavis.edu/sklab/kowalczy.htm.