Dr. Riley obtained her B.S. and M.S. at UMass Amherst, her Ph.D. at Harvard and then spent 15 years as a Professor at Yale. She just recently returned home to UMass Amherst, where she is a Professor in the Department of Biology. Her research in microbial ecology and evolution has led to key insights into the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Dr. Riley has a strong commitment to science education and hopes to use her position as the first President of the MAS to pursue this challenging and rewarding mission.
Professor Watt is the President and Trustee of the California Academy of Sciences and Professor and Director of the Center for Evolutionary Studies, Stanford University. He received his B.A. in Zoology, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in biology all at Yale University. Dr. Watt's research focuses on the development of evolutionary theory from mechanistic viewpoints. His studies employ techniques ranging from biochemistry and wind tunnel flight biophysics to field ecology and mathematical population genetics and address biochemical and physiological mechanisms of genetic variation, ecological niche structure as the source of natural-selective pressures, and the resulting patterns of evolution of metabolic organization.
Dr. Robert L. Lichter, Principal of Merrimack Consultants, LLC, was born and grew up in the Boston area and currently lives in the Berkshire County town of Alford, Mass. He received his A.B. cum laude from Harvard College in 1962 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1967, both in chemistry. After 13 years in the chemistry department at Hunter College of the City University of New York, he became regional director of grants at Research Corporation from 1983 to 1986. From 1986 to 1989 he served as vice provost for research and graduate studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Before embarking on his current position in 2002, he was executive director of the New York City-based Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation from 1989, where he directed the strategies and administration of ten programs and related activities that yielded about $6 million in grants and awards in the chemical sciences for research, education, science communication, and human resource development. A Fellow of the Association for Women in Science, Dr. Lichter is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was Chair of its Section on Chemistry for 2001-2002 and is Secretary of the Section for 2004-2012. Dr. Lichter is a member of the NSF Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering, which he chaired in 2005; a member of the NSF Advisory Committee on the Government Performance and Results Act Performance Assessment, and served a three-year term as a member of the NSF Advisory Committee on Environmental Research and Education.
Dr. Robert Dorit is an Associate Professor of Biology at Smith College. He received his B.A. in Human Biology and M.E. in Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, and he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Dr. Dorit's lab is broadly concerned with experimental, retrospective and computational approaches to molecular evolution. There are three on-going projects that Dr. Dorit pursues. The first addresses resistance in antimicrobial design, which employs in vitro engineering approaches and large-scale screening to engineer antimicrobial toxins for use against enteric pathogens. He also studies in vivo experimental evolution by "re-evolving" RNase P RNA. Finally, Dr. Dorit is investigating the genetic dynamics of the seed bank in a weed species, Stellaria media. Dr. Dorit is a founder and CEO of Origin Antimicrobials LLC, a biopharmacuetical start-up company focused on generating novel antimicrobials.
Mr. Thomas McGuire Jr. is an attorney who practices Trial Practice, Business litigation, Banking Law, Real Estate, and Municipal Law. He received his B.A. at Boston College, and went to Law School at Suffolk University. Mr. McGuire was listed in Massachusetts Super Lawyers in 2007. He is on the Corporation Counsel for the City of Fall River, and has been on the General Counsel for the First Federal Savings Bank of America, the President of Bristol County Bar Advocates, and on the Board of Directors for the S.E. Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation.
Ms. Walters received her Bachelor's degree from University of Massachusetts Boston and pursued her degree in Law at Suffolk Law School. She practiced law for a number of years in the Boston area, with a specialty in mediation. For the past ten years, Ms. Walter's has devoted herself to raising a family of two boys, Alex and Nicky, with her husband Rick. In her spare time, Susan is a generous philanthropist, supporting the Boston Symphony, the Nantucket Whaling Museum and, more recently, the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Sassanfar received her B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cornell University. Dr. Mandana is the Director fo the Massachusetts Junior Academy of Sciences. She has extensive research experience in both academia and industry, where she spent four years working on the discovery of novel antimicrobial targets. Dr. Sassanfar's scientific interests are focused on two main areas: DNA repair and mutagenesis, and small RNAs. She is particularly interested in tRNAs that play a fundamental role in protein translation. tRNAs are small (~76-bases long), and yet each tRNA molecule interacts with a battery of proteins involved in such varied processes as tRNA modification, tRNA processing, tRNA aminoacylation, translation initiation or elongation, and the ribosome. In fact, any given tRNA molecule interacts with at least 15 different proteins, some yet uncharacterized! Dr. Sassanfar's other interests are high school and college science outreach. She organizes and lead various programs that focus on science teachers training, curriculum development, hands-on activities for high school students, and volunteer work with area high schools. In addition Dr. Sassanfar oversees a summer research internship program in biology for undergraduates from other institutions at MIT. She is also co-Master of Winthrop house and has the tremendous privilege of living among Harvard undergraduates.
Dr. Jonathan King is a Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his B.S. at Yale University in Zoology and his Ph.D. at Cal Tech in Genetics. Dr. King's research interests include virus assembly, protein folding, and misfolding. Dr. King is also currently organizing the Massachusetts Darwin 2009 Bicentennial Project.