Thomas D.
Pollard
Thomas Dean Pollard (born July 7, 1942) is a
prominent educator, cell biologist and biophysicist Thomas Dean Pollard
whose research focuses on understanding cell motility Born July 7, 1942 (age 82)
through the study of actin filaments and myosin Pasadena, California, United
motors. He is Sterling Professor Emeritus of States
Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and a Nationality American
professor emeritus of cell biology and molecular Alma mater Pomona College
biophysics & biochemistry at Yale University.[1] He Harvard Medical School
was dean of Yale's Graduate School of Arts and
Known for Research on cell motility, actin
Sciences from 2010 to 2014, and president of the Salk
filaments, and myosin motors
Institute for Biological Studies from 1996 to 2001.
Awards National Academy of Sciences
(1992)
Education E. B. Wilson Medal (2004)
Gairdner Foundation International
He was educated at Pomona College, receiving a B.A. Award (2006)
degree in 1964.[2] Scientific career
Fields cell biologist
He then attended Harvard Medical School, graduating
cum laude in 1968. He then interned in internal Institutions Yale University
medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Career
Following his internship, Pollard became a Staff Associate at the National Heart and Lung Institute. Soon
after, he returned to Harvard, becoming an assistant professor of anatomy in 1972, and advancing to
associate professor in 1975. In 1977, Pollard was named professor and director of the department of cell
biology and anatomy at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where his laboratory discovered
and characterized several important cellular proteins. In 1996, he left Hopkins to become the president of
the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, where he also maintained a highly
productive research unit in the structural biology laboratory. Additionally, Pollard served as an adjunct
professor of biology, of bioengineering, and of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of
California, San Diego. In 2001, Pollard moved his laboratory to Yale, where he was appointed Sterling
Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and professor of Cell Biology and of
Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry. From 2003 to 2010 he chaired the Department of Molecular,
Cellular & Developmental Biology. In 2010, President Richard Levin named Pollard dean of the graduate
school of arts and sciences at Yale, where he served until 2014. After retiring from Yale in 2021, Pollard
was appointed Visiting Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California,
Berkeley. From 2018 to 2021, Pollard was director of Yale's Institute for Biological, Physical and
Engineering Sciences. Pollard has been very active in promoting scientific education and federal funding
of biomedical research primarily through two major societies, both of which he served as a past president:
the American Society for Cell Biology and the Biophysical Society.
Нe is an Editor of the journal Molecular Biology of the Cell published by the American Society for Cell
Biology.
Pollard is a Fellow of the:
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1990)
National Academy of Sciences of the United States (1992)
American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993)
American Academy of Microbiology (1997)
Biophysical Society (1999)
Institute of Medicine (1999)
American Society for Cell Biology (2016)
Pollard is a recipient of the:
Rosenstiel Award, Brandeis University (jointly with James Spudich in 1996)
Public Service Award, Biophysical Society (1997)
E.B. Wilson Medal, American Society for Cell Biology (2004)
Gairdner International Award in Biomedical Sciences (2006).
NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing (2015)
Along with co-authors William C. Earnshaw, PhD, FRSE; Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, PhD; and
illustrator Graham Johnson, Pollard is the primary author of the textbook Cell Biology now in its fourth
edition published by Elsevier (2023). Numerous publications, teaching and public service awards,
scientists mentored, and editorial boards served-on exemplify Pollard's extensive contributions to the
fields of education and cell biology.
Family
Thomas Pollard is married to Patricia Snowden, past president of the Maryland League of Women's
Voters and cofounder of the Maryland Education Coalition. They have two children. Katherine Snowden
Pollard is director of the Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology, a Professor at the
University of California, San Francisco, and investigator at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Daniel Avery
Pollard (https://cse.wwu.edu/biology-faculty/pollard) is an associate professor in the biology department
of Western Washington University.
References
Pollard, T.D. (2019) Cell motility and cytokinesis: from mysteries to molecular mechanisms in five
decades. Ann. Rev. Cell Devel. Biol. 35:1-28. PMID: 31394047.
1. "Thomas Pollard, MD" (https://medicine.yale.edu/cellbio/profile/thomas_pollard/).
medicine.yale.edu. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
2. "Starr Named to Academy" (http://magazine.pomona.edu/pomoniana/2020/06/24/starr-name
d-to-academy/). Pomona College Magazine. Pomona College. 24 June 2020. Retrieved
29 August 2020.
External links
Yale University, Pollard Laboratory (http://www.yale.edu/pollard_lab/)
The Gairdner Foundation, Thomas D. Pollard (https://web.archive.org/web/2009080103213
3/http://www.gairdner.org/awards/awardees2/20071998/2006awarde/thomasdpol)
Thomas D. Pollard CV (http://www.yale.edu/pollard_lab/Pollard_CV.htm)
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