NEW MEMBERS APPOINTED TO NAGMS COUNCIL HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson has appointed three new members to the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council. They are Shelagh M. Ferguson-Miller, Ph.D., of Michigan State University; Theodora E. Joan Robinson, Ph.D., of Morgan State University; and Yu-li Wang, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

National Institutes of Health, Jan 24, 2003 by NIGMS Press Office

The council, which meets three times a year, is composed of leaders in the biological and medical sciences, education, health care and public affairs. Its members, who are appointed for four-year terms, perform the second level of peer review for research and research training grant applications assigned to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Council members also offer advice and recommendations on policy and program development, program implementation, evaluation and other matters of significance to the mission and goals of NIGMS.

Dr. Ferguson-Miller is university distinguished professor and chair in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Her research interests include the study of the structure and function of an enzyme critical to the conversion of food and oxygen into energy. Dr. Ferguson-Miller earned a B.S. in physiology and biochemistry and an M.A. in biochemistry from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. Her Ph.D. in biochemistry is from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Ferguson-Miller conducted postdoctoral research at Oxford University in England and at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Dr. Robinson is a professor of biology and dean of the School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md. She is involved in a variety of activities that seek to increase the number of minority students who are pursuing science careers. Dr. Robinson earned a B.S. in biology from the University of the District of Columbia and an M.S. in microbiology from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Her Ph.D., also from Howard University, is in cell biology and endocrinology. Dr. Robinson was a postdoctoral fellow at the Mayo Graduate School in Rochester, Minn., and at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Wang is a professor in the department of physiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. His research focuses on the mechanisms of cell movement and division. Dr. Wang is a pioneer in using functional fluorescent proteins for visualizing living cells. His inventions include an electronic microinjection device and a flexible substrate for cell culture. Dr. Wang earned a B.S. in physics from the National Taiwan University in Taipei and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where he also did postdoctoral research.

A component of NIH, one of the Public Health Service agencies within HHS, NIGMS funds research and research training in the basic biomedical sciences. This support enables scientists at universities, medical schools and research institutions to expand knowledge about the fundamental life processes that underlie human health and disease.