Dr. Bruce Alberts

Forum Keynote Speaker

Saturday, July 26, 2003

Science Education and the National Science Education Standards: 

The Challenges Ahead

     Dr. Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., is a respected biochemist recognized for his work both in biochemistry and molecular biology.  He is noted particularly for his extensive study of the protein complexes that allow chromosomes to be replicated, as required for a living cell to divide.

     He has spent his career making significant contributions to the field of life sciences, serving in different capacities on a number of prestigious advisory and editorial boards, including as chair of the Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council.  Until his election as President of the Academy, he was president-elect of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

    Born in 1938 in Chicago, Illinois, Alberts graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a degree in biochemical sciences.  He earned a doctorate from Harvard University in 1965.  He joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1966 and after ten years was appointed professor and vice chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).  In 1980, he was awarded the honor of an American Cancer Society Lifetime Research Professorship.  In 1985, he was named chair of the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

        Alberts has long been committed to the improvement of science education, dedicating much of his time to educational projects such as City Science, a program seeking to improve science teaching in San Francisco elementary schools.  He has served on the advisory board of the National Science Resources Center, a joint project of the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution working with teachers, scientists, and school systems to improve teaching of science, as well as on the National Academy of Sciences' National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment.

      He is one of the original authors of The Molecular Biology of the Cell, now in its 4^th edition.  Considered the leading textbook of its kind, it is used widely in colleges and universities around the world.  His most recent text, Essential Cell Biology (1998), is intended to approach this subject matter for a wider audience.

     For the period 2000 to 2005, Dr. Alberts is the Co-chair of the InterAcademy Council, a new advisory institution in Amsterdam governed by the presidents of the science academies of 15 different nations.