Category Archives: SCIENCE

Eric Lander: New Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Lander will also serve as Biden’s science adviser and — a first — will be in the president’s Cabinet.

Janna Levin: Theoretical Cosmologist and Professor of Physics and Astronomy

Dr. Janna J. Levin (born 1967) is a theoretical cosmologist and a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College. She earned a PhD in theoretical physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Much of her work deals with looking for evidence to support the proposal that our universe might be finite in size. Other…

Rochelle Walensky: New Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr. Rochelle Walensky is the new Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Prior to her appointment at the CDC, she was the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at…

Scott Gottlieb: Former FDA Commissioner and Frequent Commentator on the COVID Pandemic

Dr. Scott Gottlieb (48) served as the 23rd commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 until early 2019. Currently, he is a resident fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, and a partner at the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. In addition, he is a member of the board…

Mikael Dolsten: Swedish-American Researcher Heading Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine Development

Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D. (62) is Swedish-American Jew who immigrated to the U.S. in 2004. As President, Worldwide Research and Development of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Dolsten leads the team that developed an effective COVID vaccine, which is now being given to Americans and people in other countries. As you will read in The Jerusalem Post…

Oliver Sachs: Famous ‘Awakenings’ Neurologist Revered for His Wisdom and Compassion

Oliver Wolf Sacks (9 July 9, 1933 – 30 Aug. 30, 2015) was a noted neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and author. He wrote a number of best-selling case histories about both his patients’ and his own disorders. Some were adapted for plays, feature films, animated short films, opera, dance, fine art, and musical works…

Ken Goldberg: Robotics Scientist and Engineer, Artist, Writer, and Inventor

Kenneth “Ken” Goldberg (58–59) is a true Renaissance person: scientist, engineer, artist, writer, and inventor. As a scientist and engineer, he focuses on robotics and automation. Goldberg is professor and chair of the industrial engineering and operations research department at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds the William S. Floyd Jr. Distinguished Chair in…

Lise Meitner: Brilliant Physicist Called ‘The German Marie Curie’ by Albert Einstein

Lise Meitner (November 1878 — October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish physicist who contributed to the discoveries of an element protactinium and nuclear fission. While working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on radioactivity, she discovered protactinium (specifically protactinium-231) as a radioactive isotope in 1917. Soon after fleeing from Nazi Germany to Sweden in 1938, she and…

Rosalind Franklin: Overlooked Pioneer in Understanding DNA

Rosalind Franklin (July 25, 1920 — April 16, 1958) was an English chemist and crystallographer whose research made an enormous contribution to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Like many women in the scientific field, much of what she achieved was not acknowledged during her lifetime but recognized…

Ruth Arnon: Israeli Researcher Seeking a Universal Flu Vaccine

Professor Ruth Arnon, 87, is a renowned Israeli biochemist and co-developer of the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone. She is the Paul Ehrlich Professor of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she is researching anti-cancer and universal influenza vaccinations — meaning the flu vaccine won’t have to be changed every year to be effective…