An Honor Among Scientists
Department of Biological Sciences faculty member Richard Zitomer has been appointed chair of the Genetic Study Section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
NIH study sections, panels of scientists meeting three times per year to review and grant applications, represent various fields of basic and clinical biomedical research. Membership is based upon the panelists’ demonstrated scientific expertise and their ability to critically evaluate research proposals.
The current study section term, which started its work in 1996, is the second for Zitomer.
The chair of each section is specifically chosen by its Scientific Review Administrator, with the member’s proven stature on the panel a significant component. The chair’s duties include moderating discussion of grant applications, ensuring that each application is fully and fairly discussed, and maintaining a schedule that allows all applications to be fairly heard and judged.
“I believe that being choose to serve on an NIH study section is an honor alone and a measure of Richard’s stature within the scientific community,” said Jon Jacklet, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. “Serving as a chair is further strong evidence of his high level performance on the study section.
“It is also an excellent example of how highly the researchers in the department at Albany are viewed within the scientific community as a whole.”
Public Official Par Excellence
Sharon S. Dawes, director of the University’s Center for Technology in Government, has been named a “Public Official of the Year” by the national publication Governing magazine.
Along with nine other awardees, including Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, Elizabeth G. Hill, legislative analyst for the State of California, and Anthony A Williams, chief financial officer for the District of Columbia, Dawes is scheduled to receive her award at the magazine’s “Gala Dinner” on Dec. 3 in Washington D.C.
Dawes, the director of CTG since its birth at the University in 1993, has steered the program into national prominence. It won an Innovations in American Government award from the Ford Foundation in 1995 for its success in forming strategic partnerships among government agencies, technology corporations, University faculty and students.
Three dozen high-tech companies, more than 30 government agencies, and a dozen academic researchers have participated in Center projects since its inception.
Dawes, B.A. ’72, Ph.D. ’91, is a former director of the Forum for Information Resource Management at Rockefeller Institute. For 12 years prior, she was an assistant commissioner for income maintenance at the Department of Social Services.