Geraldine Seydoux Named Vice Dean for Basic Research for the School of Medicine

To the school of medicine faculty and staff

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to announce that Geraldine Seydoux, Ph.D., an accomplished molecular developmental biologist, will become the vice dean for basic research for the school of medicine.

In this new role, Dr. Seydoux will focus on the further review and development of an implementation plan for the Fundamental Science Task Force report. Following several months of meetings with faculty focus groups and discussions with peer organizations, the task force identified five principal areas on which we should focus to advance basic laboratory research across the school. These include: an assessment of the organizational framework for basic science research; measures for attracting and retaining the best scientists; promoting links between basic science and clinical departments; developing new research space to enhance multiple dimensions of our basic research; and focused attention on fundraising in support of fundamental research. Working with department directors, basic science faculty and Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences leadership to build consensus around these program elements, Geraldine is charged with leading the effort to advance our high-impact bench investigations.

As an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Huntington Sheldon Professor in Medical Discovery in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Geraldine is recognized for her fundamental contributions to the study of early embryo development in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans. For this work, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences last year and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013.

After completing her B.S. in biochemistry at the University of Maine at Orono, she received her Ph.D. in molecular biology from Princeton University in 1991 and was then a postdoctoral fellow in developmental biology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. She came to the school of medicine in 1995 and rose through the ranks to become a full professor in 2004. Since 2005, she has been an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Geraldine is a past member of the board of directors for the Genetics Society of America and the Society for Developmental Biology. She has served on several scientific review panels, including the DEV1 and MIRA study sections at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Searle Foundation advisory board. She is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the NIH Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 1999, a MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2001, and the Johns Hopkins Professors' Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Preclinical Sciences in 2010. To assume this new role, Geraldine will step down as editor for the journal Development and as chair of the M.A./Ph.D. Committee at the school of medicine.

Please join me in congratulating Geraldine and welcoming her as vice dean for basic research. We look forward to working with her and the scientific community to advance our research enterprise.

Sincerely,

Paul B. Rothman, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine