PRINCETON: IAS announces new prof, joint research initiative

  PRINCETON — The Institute for Advance Study has announced that former Princeton University physics professor Stanislas Leibler has been appointed to the faculty of its School of Natural Sciences.
   The appointment, which was effective April 1, is part of a new joint initiative in quantitative and theoretical biology with Rockefeller, established through a $10 million gift from the Simons Foundation that is divided equally between the two institutions. Mr. Leibler heads the Laboratory of Living Matter at The Rockefeller University, a position he will continue to hold, the announcement stated.
   The Institute has also received an additional $10 million challenge grant from the Simons Foundation to add to the permanent endowment of the Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute, established in 2004 and named in recognition of major support from the foundation. The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences has provided $1 million, representing the first gift to match the challenge.
   ”I am delighted to join the faculty of the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute,” Mr. Leibler said. “Both the Institute for Advanced Study and the Rockefeller University are known for their scientific excellence and their deep attachement to academic freedom. I feel privileged to be given the opportunity to continue my research in these institutions and to participate in their new interdisciplinary initiative.”
   In its announcement, the Institute cited Mr. Leibler’s “unique and important contributions to theoretical and experimental biology” and noted his success “in extending the interface between physics and biology to develop new solutions and approaches to problems.”
   ”The quality and depth of Stan’s research and his influential experimental and theoretical work will contribute greatly to our work in systems biology,” said Institute director Peter Goddard. “This new initiative with the Rockefeller University will foster important and distinctive contributions to research in biology, and will enable us to expand greatly what we are doing in this field, helping the Institute to continue to train the next generation of life scientists.”
   Mr. Leibler came to Princeton University in 1992 as a professor in the Department of Physics, becoming a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology in 1993. He was a visiting scientist at the European Molecular Biological Laboratories in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1997-98. From 2000 to 2001, Leibler was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and he came to Rockefeller in 2001, becoming a professor at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in 2003.
   He did his undergraduate studies in physics at the University of Warsaw and was awarded an M.S. in theoretical physics in 1979 from the University of Paris. Also at the University of Paris, Leibler earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1981, and a second doctorate in physics in 1984. He became a tenured research fellow at the Centre d’Etudes de Saclay in 1984, where he did his early research, and remained there until 1992. Leibler was also a Visiting Research Associate at Cornell University from 1985 to 1987.
   The collaboration between the Institute and Rockefeller will involve biologists, mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists exploring quantitative and theoretical approaches to biological problems. The two institutions will jointly appoint visiting professors and graduate and postdoctoral fellows, fund early stage high-risk projects and develop joint seminars, workshops and lectures.
   A series of annual conferences will be established as part of this initiative, to be named in honor of Joshua Lederberg, a Nobel Laureate in medicine and Rockefeller’s President from 1978 to 1990, and mathematician John von Neumann, a Faculty member at the Institute from 1933 to 1957. Their work on artificial intelligence, expert systems, self-reproduction and computational aspects of biological systems will serve as a model for this initiative.
   ”This unique initiative, which draws on the strength of both Rockefeller and the Institute for Advanced Study, will open new doors to studying complex biological problems,” says Paul Nurse, Rockefeller University’s president. “By combining techniques from several different scientific disciplines, the effort will be well positioned to make breakthroughs in how we understand key processes of life and disease.”
   The Institute for Advanced Study, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution whose more than 5,000 former members have included 22 Nobel Laureates. It is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry with work concentrated in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science.
   The Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute for Advanced Study aims to foster original theoretical research in systems biology using genetic, molecular and evolutionary approaches, in some cases focusing on disease processes. Major areas of study include the genomic evolution and behavior of RNA viruses such as influenza, herpes and human immunodeficiency viruses, and the molecular and cellular origins of cancer, autism and other diseases