July 22, 2003

Dear Colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to announce that Carol W. Greider, Ph.D., will become the new director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, effective August 1. After an exhaustive search by the committee headed by Richard Huganir and Martin Abeloff, it is extremely gratifying that the top pick was already at Hopkins.

Dr. Greider has served as interim director of the department since 2002. In addition to leading a robust research program, Dr. Greider served as director of admissions for the Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program and was a member of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission during the Clinton Administration. Internationally recognized for her work on telomerase, she has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a Pew Biomedical Scholar. Dr. Greider has received numerous honors, including the National Academy's Richard Lounsbery Award, the Gairdner Foundation Award and the Rosenstiel Award.

I agree wholeheartedly with the search committee's impression that Dr. Greider possesses "the outstanding strengths in leadership, research and teaching that we consider indispensable, combined with an exciting vision of the future of research in Molecular Biology and Genetics."

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Greider.

Sincerely,