Scientific Advisory Board

Adriaan Bax, Ph.D.
Chief of Biophysical NMR Spectroscopy Section, National Institutes of Health

Dr. Bax has been with the National Institutes of Health since 1983. He received both his B.S. and Ph.D. from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.  Dr. Bax has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2002.  Over the past three decades, he has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the E. Bright Wilson Award of the American Chemical Society.

Stephen Harrison, Ph.D.
Professor, Director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Dynamics, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Harrison has spent the bulk of his career at Harvard University, from which he received both his B.A. and Ph.D. He has served on several Scientific Advisory and Editorial Boards.  Professional societies of which he is a member include the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Crystallographic Association.  He has received multiple professional awards and honors during his career.

Ruth Lehmann, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology; Director, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. Lehmann became director of the Whitehead Institute in 2020 after serving in leadership roles at NYU from 1996 to 2020, including as director of the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology. She has received multiple professional awards and honors during her career. Dr. Lehmann received her undergraduate degree and Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and president of the American Society for Cell Biology.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.
Group Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge, UK

Dr. Ramakrishnan is the co-recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the atomic structure of the ribosome. Dr. Ramakrishnan has been with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge since 1999. He received his B.S. from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and Ph.D. from Ohio University. Dr. Ramakrishnan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and, from November 2015 until November 2020, was President of the Royal Society. He has received multiple professional awards and honors during his career

Past SAB Members

Richard Henderson, Ph.D.
Program Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge, UK

Dr. Henderson is the co-recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work related to cryo-electron microscopy.  Dr. Henderson has been with the University of Cambridge, from which he received his Ph.D., since 1973. He received his B.S. from Edinburgh University.  Dr. Henderson is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, among them the Distinguished Scientist Award and Fellow, Microscopy Society of America.

Harold Varmus, Ph.D.
Professor, Senior Advisor to the Dean and Provost, Weill Cornell Medicine
Senior Associate Core Member, New York Genome Center

Dr. Varmus is the co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studies of the genetic basis of cancer. He has also been the recipient of many other awards and honors, among them the National Science Foundation’s Vannevar Bush Award. His academic credentials include a B.A. from Amherst College, M.A. from Harvard University and M.D. from Columbia University.  Dr. Varmus joined Weill Cornell Medical College in 2015 following his tenure as Director of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.