Albany Prize Recipients Chosen for Major Roles in the Biden Administration

Geneticist Eric Lander, PhD, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., and recipient of the 2010 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, has been tapped by U.S. President Elect Joe Biden as presidential science advisor and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

If Dr. Lander is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he will serve as a member of Biden’s cabinet.

Dr. Lander was one of three scientists who received the Albany Prize in 2010. Another was Francis Collins, MD, PhD, who has been serving as the director of the National Institutes of Health and who, last week, was asked to continue in that role in the Biden administration.

Additionally, Anthony Fauci, MD, the 2002 recipient of the Albany Prize, will serve as the Chief Medical Advisor to the President beginning Wednesday, Jan. 20. He has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.

“We congratulate these storied physicians and scientists on their substantive achievements. Their continued work has an incredible impact on the lives of Americans and people around the world,” said Vincent P. Verdile, MD ’84, The Lynne and Mark Groban, MD, ’67 Distinguished Dean of Albany Medical College and chair of the Albany Prize National Selection Committee.

Drs. Lander and Collins were chosen along with David Botstein, PhD, chief scientific officer at Calico and Professor of Genomics at Princeton University, for their work in unlocking and mapping of the human genome—a revolutionary development that dramatically expanded our knowledge of heredity, disease, and human evolution.

Dr. Fauci was a prize recipient for his pioneering work in infectious disease, including HIV/AIDS.

The Albany Prize has been awarded annually since 2001, except for 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was established by the late Morris “Marty” Silverman to honor scientists whose work has translated from “the bench to the bedside” resulting in better outcomes for patients and to draw positive attention to Albany Medical Center and the Capital Region. A $50 million gift commitment from the Marty and Dorothy Silverman Foundation to Albany Medical Center provides for the Prize to be awarded annually for 100 years.