IAMNYAS Female Blavatnik Awards Interdisciplinary Science: Global STEM Alliance Winners on ‘The Best Job A Coming of Age? Students Meet the Gates in the World’ www.nyas.org • Spring 2016 Board of Governors Chair Vice Chair Treasurer NANCY L. ZIMPHER PAUL WALKER ROBERT CATELL President [ex officio] Secretary [ex officio] ELLIS RUBINSTEIN LARRY SMITH Governors LEN BLAVATNIK ELAINE FUCHS JOHN E. KELLY III PAUL WALKER NANCY CANTOR ALICE P. GAST MEHMOOD KHAN IRIS WEINSHALL MARTIN CHALFIE BRIAN GREENE JEFFREY D. SACHS FRANK WILCZEK MILTON COFIELD THOMAS L. HARRISON KATHE A. SACKLER MICHAEL ZIGMAN KENNETH L. DAVIS THOMAS C. JACKSON MORTIMER D.A. SACKLER MIKAEL DOLSTEN BETH JACOBS GEORGE E. THIBAULT International Governors Chairman Emeriti Honorary Life Governors SETH F. BERKLEY TONI HOOVER JOHN E. SEXTON KAREN E. BURKE MANUEL CAMACHO SOLIS RAJENDRA K. PACHAURI TORSTEN N. WIESEL JOHN F. NIBLACK STEFAN CATSICAS RUSSELL READ GERALD CHAN PAUL STOFFELS S. KRIS GOPALAKRISHNAN President’s Council PETER AGRE PETER DOHERTY RICHARD MENSCHEL MARC TESSIER-LAVIGNE Nobel Laureate & Univ. Prof. Nobel Laureate & Researcher, Sr. Director, Goldman Sachs President, The and Director, Johns Hopkins St. Jude Children’s Research RONAY MENSCHEL Rockefeller Univ. Malaria Research Inst., Dept. Hospital, Memphis, TN; Chairman of the Board, SHIRLEY TILGHMAN Molecular Microbiology and Univ. of Melbourne Phipps Houses; Board of President Emerita and Immunology, Bloomberg MIKAEL DOLSTEN Overseers, Weill Cornell Prof. of Molecular Biology, School of Public Health President, Worldwide Medical College Princeton Univ. RICHARD AXEL Research and Development; HEATHER XAVIER TRIAS Nobel Laureate & Professor, Sr. VP, Pfizer Inc MUNROE-BLOOM Mayor of Barcelona Columbia Univ.; MARCELO EBRARD Principal (Pres.) Emerita / FRANK WALSH Investigator, HHMI CASAUBÓN Prof. of Medicine, CEO, Ossianix, Inc. DAVID BALTIMORE Mayor, Mexico City McGill Univ. GERALD WEISSMANN Nobel Laureate & President EDMOND H. FISCHER FERID MURAD Prof. of Medicine, NYU Emeritus, Caltech Nobel Laureate & Prof. Nobel Laureate & Director, School of Medicine ETIENNE-EMILE BAULIEU Emeritus, Dept. of IMM Center for Cell Signaling, JOHN WHITEHEAD Former President, French Biochemistry, Univ. The University Former Chairman, Lower Executive Editor Academy of Sciences of Washington of Texas at Houston Manhattan Development Diana Friedman PAUL BERG JEROME I. FRIEDMAN JOHN F. NIBLACK Corp.; former Co-Chairman Nobel Laureate & Prof. Nobel Laureate & Institute Former President, Pfizer of Goldman Sachs Emeritus, Dept. of Prof. & Prof. of Physics, Global Research GEORGE WHITESIDES Associate Editor Biochemistry, Stanford Univ. Emeritus, MIT & Development Woodford L. & Ann A. Hannah Rice LEN BLAVATNIK JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN PAUL NURSE Flowers Univ. Prof., Chairman, Access Industries Nobel Laureate & Chairman, Nobel Laureate, & Former Harvard Univ. GÜNTER BLOBEL Molecular Genetics, President, The Royal Society; TORSTEN N. WIESEL Design Nobel Laureate & Director, Univ. of Texas Southwestern Former President, The Nobel Laureate & former Laboratory for Cell Biology, Medical Center Rockefeller Univ., Secy. General, Human Strong Studio NYC LLC The Rockefeller Univ. S. KRIS GOPALAKRISHNAN Chief Exec., The Francis Crick Frontier Science Program Matthew Strong, Kate Allaire IRINA BOKOVA Chairman, Axilor Ventures/ Institute Organization; President Director General, United Co-founder, Infosys VENKATRAMAN Emeritus, The Nations Educational, PAUL GREENGARD RAMAKRISHNAN, Rockefeller Univ. Contributors Scientific and Cultural Nobel Laureate & Prof. Nobel Laureate; President, FRANK WILCZEK Alexis Clements, Organization (UNESCO) of Molecular & Cellular The Royal Society Nobel Laureate & Herman SYDNEY BRENNER Neuroscience, The RICHARD ROBERTS Feshbach Professor of Elizabeth Gough-Gordon, Nobel Laureate & Rockefeller Univ. Nobel Laureate & CSO, Physics, MIT Hallie Kapner, Roderick J. Lawrence, Distinguished Prof., Salk Inst. GLENDA GREENWALD New England Biolabs ERNST-LUDWIG MICHAEL S. BROWN President, Aspen Brain EDWARD F. ROVER WINNACKER Rosanna Volchok Nobel Laureate & Prof. Forum Foundation President, The Dana Secy. General, Human of Molecular Genetics, PETER GRUSS Foundation Frontier Science Program; Univ. of Texas Southwestern Former President, Max Planck F. SHERWOOD ROWLAND former Secy. General, Editorial Office Medical Center Gesellschaft, Germany Nobel Laureate & Prof. of European Research Council; 7 World Trade Center LINDA BUCK WILLIAM A. HASELTINE Chemistry & Earth Science, former President, Deutsche 250 Greenwich St, 40th Fl Nobel Laureate & Investigator Chairman, Haseltine Global Univ. of California, Irvine Forschungsgemeinschaft, for HHMI; member of the Health, LLC BENGT SAMUELSSON Germany New York, NY 10007-2157 Fred Hutchinson Cancer ERIC KANDEL Nobel Laureate & Prof., ANDREW WITTY Phone: 212.298.8645 Research Center Nobel Laureate & Prof., Medical & Physiological CEO, GlaxoSmithKline KAREN E. BURKE Physiology & Cell Biology, Chem., Karolinska Inst.; TAN SRI ZAKRI ABDUL HAMID Fax: 212.298.3655 Dermatologist & Research Columbia Univ. former Chairman, The Nobel Science Advisor to the Prime Email: [email protected] Scientist KIYOSHI KUROKAWA Foundation Minister of Malaysia MARCELO EBRARD Former Science Advisor to IVAN SEIDENBERG ELIAS ZERHOUNI CASAUBON the Prime Minister of Japan; Advisory Partner, Perella President, Global Membership & Annals Orders Former Mayor, Mexico City Prof., National Graduate Weinberg Partners LP; Former Research & Development, Phone: 212.298.8640 THOMAS R. CECH Institute for Policy Studies Chairman of the Board, Verizon Sanofi-Aventis Nobel Laureate & (GRIPS) ISMAIL SERAGELDIN AHMED ZEWAIL Fax: 212.298.3650 Distinguished Prof., LEON LEDERMAN Director, Bibliotheca Nobel Laureate & Linus Email: [email protected] Univ. of Colorado, Boulder Nobel Laureate & Pritzker Alexandrina, The Library of Pauling Chair of Chemistry MARTIN CHALFIE Prof. of Science, Illinois Inst. Alexandria, Egypt and Physics, Caltech Nobel Laureate & Univ. Prof., of Tech.; Resident Scholar, PHILLIP A. SHARP GUANGZHAO ZHOU Advertising Inquiries Dept. of Biological Sciences, Illinois Math & Science Nobel Laureate & Director, Former Chairman, Chinese Columbia Univ. Academy McGovern Inst., MIT Center Association of Science Phone: 212.298.8636 CECILIA CHAN GREGORY LUCIER for Cancer Research & Technology Email: [email protected] Managing Director, Gold Chairman of the Board and MICHAEL SOHLMAN Avenue Ltd. CEO, Nu Vasive Former Exec. Director, AARON CIECHANOVER RODERICK MACKINNON The Nobel Foundation Visit the Academy online Nobel Laureate & Nobel Laureate & John PAUL STOFFELS www.nyas.org Distinguished Research Prof., D. Rockefeller, Jr. Prof., CSO, Johnson & Johnson; Tumor and Vascular Biology The Rockefeller Univ.; Worldwide Co-Chairman, Research Center, Faculty of Investigator, HHMI Pharmaceuticals Group Medicine, Technion-Israel Inst. of Tech., Haifa, Israel Spring 2016 CONTENTS COLUMNS COVER STORY 2 Letter from the President 11 #IAMNYAS Increasing Impact through Get to know your fellow Academy Members from around the world and Collective Action see how they’re impacting science. 4 Inside the Academy News about Academy MEMBER OP-ED programs and activities 18 INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE: 8 Academy eBriefings A COMING OF AGE? Summaries of recent Large global challenges, such as climate change, require a comprehensive eBriefings approach, part of which should be interdisciplinary research. 24 Annals Highlights Recent and upcoming Annals volumes ACADEMY FEATURE 26 Calendar 20 THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD Upcoming Academy Women scientists on determination, success, and the secret they wish conferences and meetings everyone knew. LAST LOOK 28 GRAVITATIONAL WAVES DETECTED! A snapshot from the LIGO Science Collaboration. Letter from the President Increasing Impact through Collective Action Cincinnati, Ohio, something unprecedented is hap- are the crucial elements in the life cycle of progressing in the pening in the schools: all of them are improving! face of daunting challenges: In Consider that 91 percent of student outcome indica- (1) Storming: convening every single one of the stakehold- tors are improving for students in Cincinnati, and that this is ers in achieving progress whether they get along with one an- happening across grade levels, from pre-kindergarten all the other or not (e.,g., in Cincinnati they convinced the unions to way up to 12th grade. The results over the past few years have sit down with the administrators, the corporate leaders, the been so astonishing, that in the U.S., 64 community partner- parents, and so on); ships in 32 states have joined the StriveTogether Cradle to (2) Norming: establishing a detailed consensus on what ev- Career Network to learn how to replicate this success. Knowing eryone’s ideal goals would consist of (improving the outcomes how challenging school reform is in your city, are you wonder- for every child in every school in the entire city); ing: How is this possible? The answer: collective action. (3) Conforming: presenting a plan that every stakeholder Before explaining the meaning of this phrase in the would not only buy into but that they would be willing to indi- Cincinnati context, allow me to touch on surely the most vidually contribute to (in Cincinnati, scores of multi-stakeholder hopeful sign in a hope-challenged world: the amazing level watchdog committees took on voluntary assignments to oversee of success of the United Nations Millennium Development the performance of every single