J. Michael Bishop
President George W. Bush will present UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop with the 2003 National Medal of Science -- the nation's highest honor for science and technology -- at a White House ceremony on Monday.
Bishop will be among eight winners to be honored at the ceremony to begin at 10:20 a.m. [ET] in the East Room of the White House on Monday, March 14.
A webcast is scheduled from the
White House pool camera in Real media. (Download
Real media player.) The National Medals Foundation will also carry the same webcast
here.
The National Medal of Science honors individuals in a variety of fields for pioneering scientific research that has led to a better understanding of the world, as well as to the innovations and technologies that give the US its global economic edge.
Bishop, who spent the first eight years of his education in a two-room schoolhouse in a rural area of Pennsylvania, has received numerous honors and awards during his 37-year career at UCSF. He won the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and the 1982 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, prizes that he shared with Harold Varmus for research that led to the discovery of proto-oncogenes -- normal genes that can be converted to cancer genes by genetic damage. This work improved understanding that all cancer probably arises from damage to normal genes and provided new strategies for the detection and treatment of cancer.
Bishop, who is also the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor, University Professor, and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF, began at UCSF as an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology working on the replication of poliovirus.
Since becoming UCSF's eighth chancellor in July 1998, Bishop has continued to teach medical students and supervise a research team studying the molecular pathogenesis of cancer.
Bishop serves as member and chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board and of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he holds honorary degrees from Gettysburg College, Miami University, Rochester University and Harvard University.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Related Links
J. Michael Bishop - Autobiography
