Eric Lander, PhD, a geneticist, molecular biologist, and mathematician, is a member of the Whitehead Institute and the Founder and Director of the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research, one of the world’s leading genome centers. He is one of the driving forces behind today’s revolution in genomics, the study of all of the genes in an organism and how they function together in health and disease. Dr. Lander has been one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project. He is also Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr. Lander earned his BA in mathematics from Princeton University in 1978 and his PhD in mathematics from Oxford University in 1981. In addition to his work in biology, he was an assistant and associate professor of managerial economics at the Harvard Business School from 1981 to 1990. Dr. Lander was named a Rhodes Scholar in 1978 and received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1987 for his work in genetics. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1997, the U.S. Institute of Medicine in 1998, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees, and has served on many advisory boards for governments, academic institutions, scientific societies, and companies.
