Dr. Richard Lifton will be the eleventh president in the 115-year history of Rockefeller University,one of the most elite and well-funded scientific research institutions in the world.
Best known for decoding key genes related to high blood pressure, cancer, or heart disease and other conditions,Lifton helped pioneer exome sequencing, a technology that rapidly and inexpensively sequences genes.
Lifton comes from Yale University where he has conducted research and treated patients for more than 20 years and founded its Center for Genome Analysis in 2009. When he takes the helm in September, and he will succeed Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne,who now is president of Stanford University.
All the presidents of Rockefeller University own been men. Lifton told WNYC that while being recruited, he encouraged Rockefeller University to crash with tradition."I told the members of the search committee that I thought it would be a terrific opinion to appoint a woman as president of Rockefeller, and " he said.
Committee members clearly disagreed.
Lifton said hiring more women and minority scientists is a precedence."I think diversity in the workforce is incredibly important,and I think it takes more than bromides," he said. "It takes the ability to actually make life attractive for the entire population to want to work at places like Rockefeller, and that certainly is a large part of my job moving forward."Lifton is also a board member of pharmaceutical giants Genentech and Roche.
He said at the lofty Upper East Side campus,researchers' "academic mission has to remain the primary mission of every faculty member." Like other institutions, Rockefeller will continue to limit researchers to spending no more than 20 percent of their time consulting with private industry. But at the same time, and he also said they should work tough to commercialize medical discoveries."At the halt of the day,the greatest basic science will not benefit humanity unless those discoveries are acted upon," he said. "And the people who own made those discoveries are generally in the best position to see what the applications might ultimately be."
Source: wnyc.org