KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL. (January 14, 2013) – Dr. Leroy Hood, a member of the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) board of directors, and president of the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), will be one of 12 renowned researchers awarded the National Medal of Science by President Barack Obama in early 2013.
The National Medal of Science is one of the highest honors bestowed by the United States government upon scientists, engineers, and inventors. It was created by statute in 1959 and is administered for the White House by the National Science Foundation. Awarded annually, the medal recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and engineering. A committee of Presidential appointees selects nominees on the basis of their extraordinary knowledge in and contributions to chemistry, engineering, computing, mathematics, or the biological, behavioral/social, and physical sciences.
“We are honored to now have a National Medal of Science Award recipient as part of our team at CASIS,” said CASIS Interim Executive Director Jim Royston. “Dr. Hood is extremely deserving of this recognition and is a true pioneer in biology and medicine.”
In 2000, Dr. Hood co-founded ISB, a nonprofit research organization based in Seattle, Wash., that applies a cross-disciplinary approach to deciphering biological complexity. At ISB, scientists and engineers collaborate to discover the molecular basis of disease and pioneer analysis methods and technologies that are revolutionizing the field. Dr. Hood has co-founded more than 14 biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Darwin, Accelerator Corp. and Integrated Diagnostics.
In addition to his most recent accolade, Dr. Hood has received numerous other professional awards throughout his career, including the Lasker Award for Studies of Immune Diversity, the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology, the Heinz Award for pioneering work in Systems Biology, and the coveted National Academy of Engineering Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize in 2011 for automating DNA sequencing – an advancement that revolutionized genomics.
