Harold Varmus
Nobel Laureate, Oncologist
Harold Varmus received the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Dr. J. Michael Bishop, his former colleague at the University of California, San Francisco, for their discovery of cellular genes that are progenitors of retroviral oncogenes. This discovery led to the isolation of many cellular genes that normally control growth and development and are frequently mutated in human cancer.
The Director of the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to 1999, Dr. Varmus was President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for the following ten years and was a co-chair of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology from January 2009 until he became the Director of the National Cancer Institute on July 12, 2010.
Dr. Varmus has authored over 350 scientific papers and five books, including a recent memoir titled The Art and Politics of Science. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine and recipient of the National Medal of Science, as well as the Vannevar Bush Award.
Photo credit - Matthew Septimus
Past Events
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Chemistry On Canvas:
When Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was beheaded during the French Revolution, he left behind a widow whom history has overlooked. Two Nobel prize-winning scientists and an art historian share a passion for a beguiling portrait of the Lavoisiers by Jacques-Louis David, painted just 6 years before the famed chemist was led to the guillotine. They’re not alone in this passion; the work now presides over a gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. What is it about this depiction of the Lavoisiers that captures the imagination of both scientists and art lovers? A conversation among two esteemed scientists, both savvy politicians, and an art historian from the Met. The three explored their infatuation with this portrait and revealed all that is hinted at on the canvas—and all that is not.
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2010 Kavli Prizes
Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus, Co-Chair of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, delivered the keynote address to open the 2010 Kavli Prizes in Oslo, Norway.
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Watching Wilson and Watson and the Future of Life on Earth
Anna Deavere Smith melds journalism and performance to create insightful one-woman vignettes depicting two of the most influential scientists of our day.
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Pioneers in Science 2009
In these insightful interviews, youthful curiosity compels unusually candid conversations, revealing the essence of pioneering science.
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What it Means to be Human
Drawing on a range of disciplines, this provocative program looked at how discoveries in areas like fundamental physics, anthropology, and genomics are influencing our understanding of uniquely human characteristics.v
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