Velia M. Fowler is an American cell biologist and biochemist specializing in the cytoskeleton. She is a professor and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware. [1]
Fowler obtained her Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College in 1974 and her PhD from Harvard University in 1980. [2] While working on her PhD, she was named a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow. [1]
Fowler was a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow from 1980 to 1982 at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine under the mentorship of Dr. Vann Bennett. [1] [2] She remained at Johns Hopkins for two more years as a research associate before becoming an assistant professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School in 1984. [1] From 1987 to 2018, Fowler led a research group at Scripps Research, serving as an Associate Dean for Graduate Studies starting in 2013 and the acting Chair of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology from 2014 to 2015. [1] In 2018, she became the Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware. [1]
Fowler has served as an editorial board member at the Journal of Biological Chemistry since 2012, and an associate editor at the same journal since 2013. [1] [3]
Fowler's research has focused on the formation and shape of red blood cells as influenced by their cytoskeleton, specifically actin and myosin. [1] [4] She also studies the role of actin in eye lens function. [1]
Selected awards: [1]
Julie A. Theriot is a cell biologist, who studies the molecular mechanics and dynamics of cell movement and organization. Her work spans many fields from microbiology to biophysics, and lab studies eukaryotic cell motility as well as the hijacking of the cytoskeleton by intracellular parasites like listeria. She has also published work that describes the mechanisms of Galvanotaxis in vertebrate cells. She is a professor at the University of Washington, Department of Biology, a continuing Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator, and Chief Scientist at the Allen Institute for Cell Science. She was previously a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and before that, she was a Predoctoral Fellow and Investigator at HHMI. She was also a fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Alanna Schepartz is an American professor and scientist. She is currently the T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Chair in Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley. She was formerly the Sterling Professor of Chemistry at Yale University.
Diane L. Barber is an American cell biologist. She is an Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell and Tissue Biology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and an elected American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow in recognition of her "distinguished contributions on cell signaling by plasma membrane ion transport proteins and on the design and function of proteins regulated by intracellular pH dynamics." In addition to teaching graduate and professional students and her administrative service, she directs a research laboratory funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Amy J. Wagers is the Forst Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, an investigator in islet cell and regenerative biology at the Joslin Diabetes Center, and principal faculty of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. She is co-chair of the Department of Stem Cells and Regenerative Biology at Harvard Medical School.
Tracy L. Johnson is the Keith and Cecilia Terasaki Presidential Endowed Chair in the Life Sciences and Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is also a professor of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In May 2020, she was named Dean of the UCLA Division of Life Sciences.
Don W. Cleveland is an American cancer biologist and neurobiologist.
Rong Li is the Director of Mechanobiology Institute, a Singapore Research Center of Excellence, at the National University of Singapore. She is a Distinguished Professor at the National University of Singapore's Department of Biological Sciences and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Whiting School of Engineering. She previously served as Director of Center for Cell Dynamics in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. She is a leader in understanding cellular asymmetry, division and evolution, and specifically, in how eukaryotic cells establish their distinct morphology and organization in order to carry out their specialized functions.
Denis Wirtz is the vice provost for research and Theophilus Halley Smoot Professor of Engineering Science at Johns Hopkins University. He is an expert in the molecular and biophysical mechanisms of cell motility and adhesion and nuclear dynamics in health and disease.
Clare M. Waterman is a cell biologist who has worked on understanding the role of the cytoskeleton in cell migration. Waterman is a Distinguished Investigator, Chief of the Laboratory of Cell and Tissue Morphodynamics, and Director of the Cell and Developmental Biology Center at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda MD, USA. Waterman has received several awards and honors, including the Sackler International prize in Biophysics, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, and the Arthur S. Flemming Award for Public Service. In 2018, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She currently serves on the editorial boards of eLife, Current Biology and Journal of Microscopy.
Marion Sewer (1972-2016) was a pharmacologist and professor at the University of California, San Diego's Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences known for her research on steroid hormone biogenesis and her commitment to increasing diversity in science. Much of her research centered around cytochrome P450, a family of enzymes involved in the conversion of cholesterol into steroid hormones. She died unexpectedly at the age of 43 from a pulmonary embolism on January 28, 2016, while traveling through the Detroit airport.
Rae Marie Robertson-Anderson is an American biophysicist who is a Professor and Associate Provost at the University of San Diego. She works on soft matter physics and is particularly interested in the transport and molecular mechanics of biopolymer networks. Robertson-Anderson is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research.
Vivian Irish is an American evolutionary biologist. She is currently Chair & Eaton Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. Her research focuses on floral development. She was president of Society for Developmental Biology in 2012 and currently serves as an editor for the journals Developmental Biology and Evolution & Development.
Susan Kaech is an American immunologist. Kaech is a professor and director of the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. She holds the NOMIS Foundation Chair. Her research focuses on the formation of memory T cells, T cell metabolism, and cancer immunotherapy.
Susana Marcos Celestino is a Spanish physicist specialising in human vision and applied optics. She was the Director of Optica in 2012.
Margaret Lise Gardel is an American biophysicist. She is the Horace B. Horton Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago.
Kathryn Rachel Ayscough is a professor of molecular cell biology and head of the department of biomedical science at the University of Sheffield. She was awarded the 2002 Society for Experimental Biology President's Medal. Her research investigates the role of the actin cytoskeleton in membrane trafficking and cell organisation.
Lewis G. Tilney is an American cell biologist and professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University Medical School in 1964. Tilney is known for studying the cytoskeleton of animal cells, specifically how different components affect the cytoskeleton's overall properties.
Courtney A. Miller is an American neuroscientist and Professor of the Department of Molecular Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida. Miller investigates the biological basis of neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases and develops novel therapeutics based on her mechanistic discoveries.
Alissa Margaret Weaver is an American scientist. In 2017, she was promoted to the Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Cell and Developmental Biology and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
David G. Drubin is an American biologist, academic, and researcher. He is a Distinguished Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Berkeley where he holds the Ernette Comby Chair in Microbiology.