Richard Axel Appointed University Professor Dr. Richard Axel has been named University Professor, the highest academic rank at Columbia. Dr. Richard Axel, a pioneer in bringing the insights of molecular biology to bear on the study of perception, has been named University Professor, the highest academic rank at Columbia. The action was approved by the Board of Trustees at its March 6 meeting and announced by President George Rupp. In making the appointment, the Trustees increased the number of University Professors from eight to nine. The appointment allows Dr. Axel to teach in any department of the University. Dr. Axel, a 1967 Columbia College graduate, joined the faculty in 1974 and has most recently served as Higgins Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and professor of pathology. He continues his affiliation with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where he has been an investigator since 1984. “I am pleased and honored to be appointed University Professor,” Professor Axel said. “I owe an enormous debt to this University. Thirty-five years ago, Columbia provided a scholarship allowing me to attend the college. As an undergraduate, I stood in awe of the University Professors, and it is therefore particularly meaningful to me to have been afforded this honor. When I returned as a professor in 1974, Columbia provided an environment allowing my laboratory to flourish. “What is the significance of this appointment to a molecular geneticist working on perception? The study of perception has a distinguished history that has often ignored biology. With the demystification of the brain, molecular biology can now approach the previously tenuous relationship between genes and behavior, cognition, memory and perception. “Thus, what we do has emerged into a multidisciplinary endeavor. The University Professorship will hopefully afford an opportunity for interactions that bring molecular biology closer to the disciplines of psychology and, at the extreme, perhaps even philosophy.” “Richard Axel richly deserves appointment as University Professor,” President Rupp said. “His deeply disciplined investigations are driven by a wide-ranging intellectual curiosity nourished in the humanities and social sciences as well as the sciences. Columbia is proud to confer this entirely apt honor.” Dr. Axel gained renown as one of the world’s leading biologists. Among other important research, he has been recognized for identifying the genes that encode odorant receptor proteins, for developing a patented gene transfer process responsible for many new pharmaceuticals, and for research that sheds light on how the AIDS virus infects healthy cells. |R