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Dr. Craig Thompson of Chicago
Dr. Craig B. Thompson, a leading immunologist who now heads the University of Chicago's Gwen Knapp Center for Lupus and Immunology Research, has been named the first scientific director of the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the PennMed Cancer Center.
Dr. Thompson will come to Penn early in 1999 from Chicago, where he is professor of medicine and of molecular genetics and cell biology. He is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
His appointment signals "the Abramson Institute's intent to position itself in the vanguard of basic research into the causes of cancer and the development of the next generation of cancer treatments," the Institute's announcement said. "Many oncologists believe that immune-based therapies against cancer are among the most promising types of new treatments being explored today."
"For reasons not yet well understood," said Dr. Thompson, "the immune system largely ignores cancers when they develop. We are looking at ways to educate the immune system to recognize cancer as abnormal and to destroy it, much as it does viral or bacterial infections.
Dr. Thompson joins an institute established last December under a $100 million pledge of the Abramson Family Foundation with a strong emphasis on combining advanced research with compassionate care and support of patients and their families during treatment.
One of his first priorities here, he said, is to begin recruiting senior investigators experienced in translational research--the process of applying laboratory discoveries to clinical usefulness.
"Craig will bring experienced, creative leadership to the Abramson Institute's research programs, stimulating even greater scientific progress that ultimately means safer, more effective new treatments for cancer," said Dr. John H. Glick, director of the Institute and of the Cancer Center, as well as the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Professor of Clinical Oncology.
Added Dean William N. Kelley, "The aim at the Abramson Institute is to bring together the resources necessary to translate today's laboratory advances into tomorrow's cancer-fighting tools in the most efficient way possible.
Dr. Thompson took his A.B. summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1974 and his M.D. from Penn in 1977. After his internship and residency at Peter Bent Brigham in Boston, he spent eight years as a research medical officer in the U.S. Navy, holding research posts in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Naval Medical Research Institute, and also at Boston University and at the University of Washington's Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where he was senior fellow in hematology and oncology in 1983-85.
In 1987 he joined the University of Michigan as assistant professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology, and member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Ann Arbor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1992. The following year he moved to his present post at Chicago.
Search Committees: Deans of Law, SEAS, and Wharton
President Judith Rodin and Interim Provost Michael Wachter have announced the following search committees:Law School
Dr. Richard J. Herring, Professor of Finance and Vice Dean and Director of the Wharton Undergraduate Division, will chair the search committee for a dean of the Law School, where Dean Colin Diver will remain in office throughout the rest of the academic year. Members are:
- Prof. Jacques deLisle, Assistant Professor of Law
- Prof. Martin Fishbein, Professor of Communications, Annenberg School for Communication
- Daniel R. Garodnick, Second Year Law Student
- Prof. Robert Gorman, Kenneth W. Gemmil Professor of Law
- Prof. Heidi Hurd, Professor of Law and Philosophy
- Paul Levy, Alumnus/Overseer
- Prof. Georgette Poindexter, Associate Professor of Real Estate, Wharton
- Dr. Samuel Preston, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
- Prof. Ed Rock, Professor of Law
- Stephanie Whitfield, First Year Law Student
SEAS
Dr. Morris Cohen, Professor of Operations and Information Management and Co-Director of the Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management in the Wharton School, will chair the search committee in Engineering and Applied Science, where Dr. Eduardo Glandt is now Interim Dean. On the committee are:
- Alyssa Abo, Bioengineering undergraduate
- Dr. Portonovo Ayyaswamy, Asa Whitney Professor of Dynamical Engineering
- Dr. Peter F. Davies, Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and of Bioengineering; Director, Institute for Medicine and Engineering
- Dr. Peter K. Davies, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
- David Ege, Chemical Engineering Ph.D. candidate
- Dr. Louis Girifalco, University Professor of Materials Science
- Dr. Vijay Kumar, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Computer and Information Science, and Systems Engineering
- Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dean, Annenberg School for Communication
- Dr. Mitchell Marcus, RCA Professor of Artificial Intelligence; Chair, Computer and Information Science
- Dr. Mitchell Quain, Alumnus; Chair, SEAS Board of Overseers
Wharton School
Gary Hack, Dean of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, will chair the search committee for a dean of the Wharton School, whose Dean Thomas Gerrity also continues in office until the end of the spring term. Members are:
- Elijah Anderson, Charles and William L. Day Professor of Social Science, SAS
- William Hamilton, Ralph Landau Professor of Management and Technology and Director, Management and Technology Program
- Patrick Harker, UPS Professor of Transportation; Chair, Operations and Information Management
- Jon M. Huntsman, Alumnus and Wharton Overseer
- Richard Kihlstrom, Miller-Freedman Professor of Finance
- Stephen J. Kobrin, Jr., William H. Wurster Professor of Multinational Management and Director, Lauder Institute
- Abba Krieger, Professor of Statistics, Operation and Information Management, and Marketing
- Joanne Lobo, Wharton undergraduate
- Rebecca Maynard, Trustee Professor of Education and Director, Educational Leadership Division, Graduate School of Education
- Michael L. Tarnopol, Alumnus, Wharton Overseer and Trustee
- Elizabeth Woodcock, MBA student
Almanac, Vol. 45, No. 11, November 10, 1998
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