Whitehead Interim Director David Page named to National Academy of Sciences

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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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