LA JOLLA INSTITUTE’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS WELCOMES FOUR NEW MEMBERS
UC president emeritus, renowned scientist and business leaders join Board
UC president emeritus, renowned scientist and business leaders join Board
SAN DIEGO – (June 8, 2009) One of the nation’s top scientists, a former president of the University of California system and two prominent business executives were welcomed to the Board of Directors of the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology at its June 5th meeting.
The new members are: Robert C. Dynes, Ph.D., president emeritus of the University of California, and former chancellor of UC San Diego; Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., president of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and one of only seven U.S. scientists elected to all three National Academies; John E. Major, non-executive chairman of the board of Broadcom, Inc., president of The Technologies Solutions Group, and chairman of CommNexus; and David Dominguez, chairman and CEO of The Andrew Lauren Company, and founder of Freedom is Not Free.
“With these four new Board members, we expand our Board’s already impressive scientific and business development credentials and bring significant management expertise from both the public and private sector,” said Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D., La Jolla Institute president and scientific director. “We appreciate the willingness of these talented and insightful individuals to serve our organization. They will join our existing eight-member board in guiding our Institute’s continued quest to fight disease and improve human health through innovative immune system research.” The Institute is a nonprofit biomedical research institute and an international leader in immunology research.
The new members bring with them an impressive array of experience including:
Dr. Dynes, a distinguished physicist, was the 18th president of the University of California system, serving for six years from 2003 to 2008 and was subsequently named UC president emeritus. While president, Dr. Dynes also was a professor of physics at UC Berkeley, where he directed a laboratory focused on superconductivity, which incorporated postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students in physics and materials science.
Prior to assuming the UC president’s role, Dr. Dynes served as the sixth chancellor of UC San Diego, from 1996 to 2003. He came to UC San Diego in 1990 after a 22-year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he was department head of semiconductor and material physics research and director of chemical physics research. Dr. Dynes recently rejoined the UC San Diego faculty as a professor in the Department of Physics.
Over the years, he has received numerous scientific awards, including his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994. He also received the Fritz London Award in Low Temperature Physics in 1990.
Since leaving the UC presidency in June 2008, Dr. Dynes has joined the boards of the San Diego Foundation, the Argonne National Laboratory, the review panel for the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Helmholtz Foundation in Germany. He also recently chaired a National Academy of Sciences Study Committee on Advanced Radiation Detection for the Department of Homeland Security
Dr. Dynes has also served on the executive committee of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, the California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth and is a Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology.
Dr. Hood is a renowned scientist and inventor who developed some of modern molecular biology's core technologies, profoundly impacting research and medicine. Dr. Hood began his professional career at the California Institute of Technology, where he and his colleagues developed four pioneering technologies, most notably the DNA sequencer, which has revolutionized genomics by allowing the rapid automated sequencing of DNA. The technology played a crucial role in the successful mapping of the human genome during the 1990s. In recognition of his groundbreaking work, Dr. Hood received the Lemelson-MIT Prize, dubbed the "Oscar for Inventors” in 2003, and in 2007, he was elected to the Inventors Hall of Fame.
After more than 25 years at Caltech, Dr. Hood moved to the University of Washington in 1992 as founder and chairman of the cross-disciplinary Department of Molecular Biotechnology. In 2000, he co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington to pioneer systems approaches to biology and medicine, and currently serves as its president.
Dr. Hood has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards including the Lasker Award for his major advances in immunology, and his election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. This honor sets him apart as one of only seven, out of more than 6000 scientists nationwide, elected to all three National Academies. Most recently, Dr. Hood's scientific contributions have earned him the 2004 Biotechnology Heritage Award and, in 2006, he received the Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy and Employment for his extraordinary breakthroughs in biomedical science at the genetic level.
Dr. Hood has published more than 600 peer-reviewed papers, received 14 patents, and played a role in founding more than 14 biotechnology companies, including Amgen and Applied Biosystems.
Mr. Major is the non-executive chairman of the board of Broadcom, Inc., a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. He was appointed to the board in 2003 and has served as chairman since May 2008. He is also the former chairman and CEO of Novatel Wireless, a provider of wireless data access solutions for PDAs and laptops. Mr. Major joined the company in August 2000 and led its successful IPO later that year. He left the organization to form his own company, The Technologies Solutions Group.
Before joining Novatel, Mr. Major was chairman and CEO of Wireless Knowledge, a San Diego-based joint venture between Microsoft Corporation and QUALCOMM that developed a unique solution allowing all Internet-enabled devices, including cell phones, to access critical corporate information such as email and calendar entries in a convenient and secure manner. Prior to joining Wireless Knowledge in 1998, Mr. Major served as corporate executive vice president of QUALCOMM, and president of its Wireless Infrastructure Division.
Mr. Major participates in several industry, research and educational organizations, including the Board of Governors' Executive Committees of the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Electronic Industries Association. He is currently chairman of CommNexus San Diego, a nonprofit organization created to support the growth and success of the communications industry in the San Diego region.
He has also served on the Visitor's Board of the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academy of Science, and the Trustee's Council of the University of Rochester.
David Dominguez is a seasoned executive who has served as president, managing partner and/or CEO of a wide range of companies over the last 28 years. Among the companies he led as CEO were: Saunders Telecom, a fabricator of relay rack, cabinets and cable runway systems for telephone and Internet back room distribution centers; Polo Players, d.b.a. the Polo Ralph Lauren Shops, the chain of Polo retail stores in California, Arizona and Hawaii; and Standards of Excellence and Standard Plumbing and Supply, where he served as a turnaround CEO. Mr. Dominguez was also the founder of Main Street, his first company in 1975, which grew to a chain of 36 specialty stores.
Currently, Mr. Dominguez serves as chairman and CEO of The Andrew Lauren Company, a new home builder services company that owns and operates new home design centers in Arizona. Mr. Dominguez has served on the boards of Independence One Bank, General Steel in Cleveland Ohio and as Chairman of the San Diego Young Presidents Organization.
In addition, he serves on a variety of community organization boards including the Salvation Army, The Village Church Foundation and the World Presidents Organization (WPO). He is also the founder of Freedom is Not Free, a nonprofit organization devoted to assisting fallen and wounded soldiers and their families.
About La Jolla Institute
Founded in 1988, the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology is a biomedical research nonprofit focused on improving human health through increased understanding of the immune system. Its scientists carry out research seeking new knowledge leading to the prevention of disease through vaccines and the treatment and cure of infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, Crohn’s disease and asthma. La Jolla Institute’s research staff includes more than 100 Ph.Ds and M.D.s.
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