Michael Katze was an American microbiologist. For over 35 years, he has researched host-virus interactions, incorporating systems biology approaches into infectious disease research. [1] [2] He was an international leader in the application of genome sequencing, animal models, and systems biology approaches to virology and immunology. Katze was formerly Professor of Microbiology at the University of Washington (UW), and Associate Director for Molecular Sciences and a Core Staff Scientist at the Washington National Primate Research Center. [3] [1] In August 2017, Katze was fired from the University of Washington for sexually harassing his employees and misusing research funds. [4] [5]
In 1971, Katze graduated from Boston University with his B.A. in biology. [2] Initially, he was interested in dentistry, but after his first year of dental school at the University of Pennsylvania, Katze decided to take his career a different direction. Later, when Katze was working as a research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania and, simultaneously, at the Wistar Institute, he discovered his passion for virology. He attended graduate school at Hahnemann University, where he earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 1980. [3] From 1980 to 1982, he completed a post-doc in virology at the University of Uppsala in Uppsala, Sweden. [3]
Until his dismissal in August 2017, Katze was a professor of microbiology and an adjunct professor in the department of bioengineering at the University of Washington. [2] He also was a core staff scientist and associate director at the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC). [2] In the past, Katze held research assistant positions at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [2] He was also a research associate and an Assistant Member at the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York, NY. [2] From 1996 to 1999, he was a member of the Experimental Virology Study Section of the Nation Institutes of Health (NIH). [2]
In January 2016, an internal investigation by the university found that Katze had violated the school's sexual harassment policies in his relationships with two female employees; a related investigation by Washington's medical school found that he had diverted university resources for personal gain and recommended an audit. [6] The administration, which had prohibited him from working in the lab on campus the year before, suspended his tenure rights but continued paying him. [7]
Katze had sued both the university and BuzzFeed to prevent release of the details, which the latter reported on in June. According to the site and the legal papers, he had apparently hired the two women at higher salaries than their positions usually carried at UW, and further lavished them with cash and gifts in response for sexual favors and other personal services unrelated to the lab such as posting personal ads for him on Craigslist and soliciting prostitutes for him. At that time, the university was considering whether to fire him or not. [7] [8] In August 2017, Katze was fired by the University of Washington. [9]
In 1971, Katze graduated from Boston University magna cum laude and was inducted into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honor society. [2] From 1980 through 1982, he received a long-term Postdoctoral Fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organization. [2] In 1998, he earned the Faculty Award for Undergraduate Research Mentoring from the University of Washington. [2] That same year he was given a Travel Award for the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research (ISICR) Meeting in Jerusalem. [2] One year later at the ISICR Meeting in Paris he was honored with the Milstein Award, which represents the zenith of scientific achievement in this area of research. [1] [2] In 2006, Katze was given the prestigious Dozor Scholar Award by the Israeli Microbiology Society. [1] [2] That same year, he received the Alumni Fellow Award from the Drexel University (Hahnemann University) College of Medicine. [2] In 2014, he received the Drexel University Graduate Citation, Mid-Career and Senior Graduates Award. [2] In 2015, Katze was elected to Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology. [2]
The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity." Rockefeller is the oldest biomedical research institute in the United States.
Geoffrey William Marcy is an American astronomer. He was an early influence in the field of exoplanet detection, discovery, and characterization. Marcy was a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, and an adjunct professor of physics and astronomy at San Francisco State University. Marcy and his research teams discovered many extrasolar planets, including 70 out of the first 100 known exoplanets and also the first planetary system around a Sun-like star, Upsilon Andromedae. Marcy was a co-investigator on the NASA Kepler mission. His collaborators have included R. Paul Butler, Debra Fischer and Steven S. Vogt, Jason Wright, Andrew Howard, Katie Peek, John Johnson, Erik Petigura, Lauren Weiss, Lea Hirsch and the Kepler Science Team. Following an investigation for sexual harassment in 2015, Marcy resigned his position at the University of California, Berkeley.
Stanley Alan Plotkin is an American physician who works as a consultant to vaccine manufacturers, such as Sanofi Pasteur, as well as biotechnology firms, non-profits and governments. In the 1960s, he played a pivotal role in discovery of a vaccine against rubella virus while working at Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. Plotkin was a member of Wistar’s active research faculty from 1960 to 1991. Today, in addition to his emeritus appointment at Wistar, he is emeritus professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. His book, Vaccines, is the standard reference on the subject. He is an editor with Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, which is published by the American Society for Microbiology in Washington, D.C.
Mark Allen Emmert is the former president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He was the fifth CEO of the NCAA; he was named as the incoming president on April 27, 2010, and assumed his duties on November 1, 2010, and remained in office until March 1, 2023.
Francisco José Ayala Pereda was a Spanish-American evolutionary biologist, philosopher, and Catholic priest who was a longtime faculty member at the University of California, Irvine and University of California, Davis.
The Wistar Institute is an independent, nonprofit research institution in biomedical science with special focuses in oncology, immunology, infectious disease and vaccine research. Located on Spruce Street in Philadelphia’s University City neighborhood, Wistar was founded in 1892 as a nonprofit institution to focus on biomedical research and training. The Institute is a distinct entity from the University of Pennsylvania, but the two are frequent collaborators and share access to certain scientific research facilities.
Thomas Eugene Shenk is an American virologist. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Life Sciences in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University.
Matt Kaeberlein is an American biologist and biogerontologist best known for his research on evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of aging. He is currently a professor of pathology at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Lynn W. Enquist is professor emeritus in molecular biology at Princeton University, as well as founding editor of the journal Annual Review of Virology. His research focuses on neuroinvasive alpha-herpesviruses.
Ann M. Arvin is an American pediatrician and microbiologist. She is the Lucile Salter Packard Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Microbiology & Immunology Emerita at Stanford University. Arvin is a specialist of the Varicella zoster virus (VZV) and a prominent national figure in health. Arvin is currently the chief of the infectious diseases division of pediatrics at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, as well as the former Stanford's Vice Provost and Dean of Research.
Alice S. Huang (simplified Chinese: 黄诗厚; traditional Chinese: 黃詩厚; pinyin: Huáng Shīhòu; Wade–Giles: Huang Shih-hou; is an American biologist specialized in microbiology and virology. She served as President of AAAS during the 2010-2011 term.
The Morgridge Institute for Research is a private, nonprofit biomedical research institute in Madison, Wis., affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The institute works to improve human health by conducting, enabling and translating interdisciplinary biomedical research. Research in regenerative biology, virology, medical devices and core computational technology is currently underway.
Bernard Nathan Fields was an American microbiologist and virologist. Fields was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
David M. Sabatini is an American scientist and a former professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2002 to 2021, he was a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He was also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 2008 to 2021 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2016. He is known for his contributions in the areas of cell signaling and cancer metabolism, most notably the co-discovery of mTOR.
Sondra Schlesinger is an American virologist and professor emeritus at the Washington University School of Medicine.
Blossom Damania is a virologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is known for her work on oncogenic viruses that cause human cancer. Damania has also been serving as vice dean for research at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine since 2016.
Adam P. Geballe is an American microbiologist and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Currently, he is a Professor at University of Washington, an investigator at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and a physician at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
Erika Marín-Spiotta is a biogeochemist and ecosystem ecologist. She is currently Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is best-known for her research of the terrestrial carbon cycle and is an advocate for underrepresented groups in the sciences, specifically women.
Jesse D. Bloom is an American computational virologist and Professor in the Basic Sciences Division, the Public Health Sciences Division, and the Herbold Computational Biology Program, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an Affiliate Professor in the University of Washington departments of Genome Sciences and Microbiology.
Alexander L. Greninger is assistant director of the UW Medicine Clinical Virology Laboratory and a UW assistant professor of Laboratory Medicine. His research is focused on genomic and proteomic characterization of a variety of human viruses and bacteria, with a focus on respiratory viruses and human herpesviruses.
