The Reporter: December 1997, Vol.8, No.5
New IOM Members From P&S

 The Institute of Medicine has announced 60 newly elected members, two of whom are from Columbia University Health Sciences. Dr. Harold P. Freeman, P&S professor of clinical surgery, and Dr. Nancy Wexler, the Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology, are Columbia's latest additions to the prestigious IOM, a component of the National Academy of Sciences.

Election to the institute is an honor bestowed on those who exemplify the highest standard of scientific integrity and who have made major contributions to health and medicine or related fields. Last year, Columbia had an unprecedented seven members elected.

Dr. Harold P. Freeman

 Dr. Freeman has been at Columbia since 1967. He received the M.D. degree from Howard University in 1958. Since 1974, Dr. Freeman has been director of surgery at Harlem Hospital Center. He is currently chairman of President Clinton's cancer panel and is a past national president of the American Cancer Society. Dr. Freeman is chief architect of the American Cancer Society's initiative on cancer in the poor and is a leading authority on the interrelationships among race, poverty, and cancer.

Dr.Nancy Wexler

 Dr. Wexler, who joined Columbia in 1985, has a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. In addition to her appointment at P&S, she is president of the Hereditary Disease Foundation, which conducts and supports research on Huntington's disease and other related illnesses. In 1993, Dr. Wexler helped lead an international collaborative effort that identified the gene that causes Huntington's. Her study of an exceptionally large family with Huntington's disease in a remote region of Venezuela yielded the most critical information leading to the discovery of the gene.

 The IOM exists to advance scientific knowledge and the health and well-being of citizens of the United States. It does that by providing information to government, the professions, and the public through its elected membership. Current active members elect new members from among candidates chosen for their major contributions to health and medicine or to related fields, such as social and behavioral sciences, law, administration, and economics.