<p>HHMI</a> News: HHMI Selects 56 of the Nation's Top Scientists
Howard</a> Hughes Medical Institute sets up $600M research fund - Baltimore Business Journal:
HHMI</a> News: The 2008 HHMI Investigators</p>
<p>Fifty-six of the nation's most creative biomedical scientists are being given the opportunity to tackle their most ambitious, risky research plans, as they become the newest class of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigators. The Institute is committing more than $600 million over their first term of appointment. </p>
<p>These 56 scientists will bring new and innovative ways of thinking about biology to the HHMI community, said Thomas R. Cech, president of HHMI. They are poised to advance scientific knowledge dramatically in the coming years, and we are committed to providing them with the freedom and flexibility to do so. </p>
<p>This crop of HHMI investigators is at the forefront of a wide range of scientific fields ranging from microbiology, genetics, and immunology to fields of inquiry that are newer to HHMI, such as bioengineering, synthetic biology, and the ecology of infectious disease. </p>
<p>HHMI chose the 56 scientists from among 1,070 applications submitted in a nationwide competition, which was announced in 2007. Researchers with 4 to 10 years of experience as faculty members at more than 200 institutions were eligible to apply. To evaluate the applications, HHMI assembled review panels of distinguished biomedical scientists. </p>
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<p>Nationwide, Berkeley and MIT had the largest number of named investigators with five scholars at each institution receiving the honor. Princeton and Stanford had the second highest number in the nation at 4 each. Princetons second place showing is notable given its small size and the fact that it has no medical school. Among the leading schools it is similar to MIT and CalTech in this way.</p>
<p>2008 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators
(institutions with more than one honoree)</p>
<p>5---Berkeley, MIT
4---Princeton, Stanford
3---CalTech, Harvard, U. of Texas SW Medical Center
2---Salk Institute, U. of Illinois Urbana, U. of Michigan, UC San Francisco</p>
<p>The Ivy League was also represented by one scholar each at Cornell, Penn and Yale.</p>
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<p>Princetons winners are:</p>
<p>Prof. Carlos Brody (studies neural mechanisms of decision making)</p>
<p>Prof. Leonid Kruglyak (studies how changes at the level of DNA are shaped by molecular and evolutionary forces)</p>
<p>Prof. Yigong Shi (studies the cascade of molecular events that lead to apoptosis, or programmed cell death)</p>
<p>Prof. David Stern (studies how genes have evolved to generate biological diversity)</p>