Nobel laureate Paul Nurse joined Rockefeller University as President on September 1, 2003

Paul Nurse, president

Paul Nurse, Ph.D., became the ninth president of the distinguished 102-year-old Rockefeller University on Sept. 1. In January, the university’s Board of Trustees unanimously elected the Nobel laureate and British biologist to the position, following an international search.

“I’m very enthusiastic about joining Rockefeller University and working closely with the faculty, students, trustees and staff to insure exceptional science and education at this university,” said Nurse, who with his wife Anne is moving to New York City from London where he has just stepped down from being Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, the world’s largest cancer research organization outside the U.S.

“Rockefeller University attracts the best scientists and students in the world because it nurtures innovation, encouraging researchers to follow the science wherever it takes them,” Nurse commented. “As a result of this guiding principle, scientific leaders who head the university’s 73 major laboratories generate remarkable advances in the biological, biomedical and related sciences.”

Studies at Rockefeller University primarily are basic science. “Knowing the human genome sequence has been a major accomplishment in science,” Nurse added. “Our current challenge is to interpret the sequence so that we can better understand the mechanisms of health and disease.”

“Paul Nurse is an eminent scientist with an exceptional record as the CEO of a major research institution,” said Richard B. Fisher, chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees. “During his several extended visits to the campus since January, Paul has become fully engaged with the university and its scientists, students, staff and Trustees and begins his leadership of the university with considerable momentum.”

The 22nd Nobel laureate associated with the university since it was established in 1901, Nurse shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 2001 with Leland H. Hartwell and R. Timothy Hunt. The three scientists were honored for advancing scientific understanding of the cell cycle, the process by which cells make copies of themselves. In addition, Nurse is the 18th scientist associated with Rockefeller University to be honored with the Lasker Award, often known as the “American Nobel.”

Besides leading the university, Nurse heads one of its major laboratories. He has named his research group the Laboratory of Yeast Genetics and Cell Biology. Nurse’s laboratory is the third new research facility established this year at Rockefeller University. Joining the university earlier this year were Thomas Tuschl and C. David Allis, scientific leaders in investigating, respectively, RNAi and the histone code, both of which influence how the DNA of genes in a cell is expressed or activated.

On Sept. 1, Nurse succeeded acting president and Rockefeller scientist Thomas P. Sakmar, M.D., who returned to full-time research as the head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the university. Sakmar became acting president in February 2002, when Arnold Levine, Ph.D., resigned as president.

For more about Paul Nurse and Rockefeller University, please visit: www.rockefeller.edu.

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