Program - Society of Toxicology

Society of Toxicology 2011
SOT 2011 Award Recipients (Continued)
Oliver
Hankinson
Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award
Oliver Hankinson, Ph.D., Professor,
Department of Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine, and Director,
Interdepartmental Doctoral Program
in Molecular Toxicology, at the
University of California, Los Angeles,
is the recipient of the 2011
Distinguished Toxicology Scholar
Award.
For over thirty years, Dr. Hankinson
has had a record of making seminal
contributions to research in
Toxicology. One of his most outstanding contributions being
the identification, cloning and functional characterization
of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Nuclear Translocator
(ARNT) protein, which presaged a transformational
explosion in our understanding of the mechanisms of
2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (dioxin) and polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbon carcinogenesis and toxicity, and the
organism’s response to hypoxia.
Dr. Hankinson is the founding and current Director of the
UCLA Molecular Toxicology interdepartmental Ph.D.
program (IDP). In 2000 he secured a training grant for
the Molecular Toxicology program from the University
of California Toxic Substances Research and Teaching
Program (UC TSR&TP). This grant was considered seed
funding, and expired in June, 2008, when he was awarded
a training grant in Molecular Toxicology from the National
Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in
July, 2008. The NIEHS grant supports 4 pre-docs and 2
postdocs. This was the only new training grant awarded by
the NIEHS in 2008.
The research of Dr. Hankinson’s laboratory has provided,
and continues to provide, fundamental insights into the
mechanisms whereby mammals respond to chemical
carcinogens and hypoxia. For example, his recent research
has documented roles for coactivator proteins and for
chromatin modification during the activation of gene
transcription by dioxin and hypoxia. The observations his
group has made are highly relevant to diseases responsible
for a major proportion of human mortality in the U.S.A,
including cancer, heart attack, stroke, asthma and chronic
lung disease. Furthermore, his laboratory has been an
important source of reagents for other research groups.
In recognition of his substantial and seminal scientific
contributions to our understanding of the science of
toxicology, Dr. Hankinson is presented the 2011 SOT
Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award.
Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award Lecture:
Cloning and Functional Analysis of the Aryl
Hydrocarbon Nuclear Translocator (ARNT),
Tuesday, March 8, 12:15 PM–1:05 PM, Room 201
Education Award
Michael Gallo, Ph.D., ATS, DABT,
Professor, Environmental and
Occupational Medicine; Adjunct
Professor, Pharmacology and
Toxicology, and Member of the
Graduate Faculty, Rutgers College of
Pharmacy, is the recipient of the SOT
2011 Education Award. Professor
Gallo continues to enjoy a long and
distinguished career in Toxicology. His
Michael Gallo pre-doctoral and postdoctoral training
were conducted at the Albany Medical
School of Union University, Albany, New York, under the
tutelage of Professor Fred Coulston, a Founding member
and Past President of the SOT.
Having begun his career in 1972 as a toxicologist in
the drug industry, he was appointed Director of the
Toxicology Division in the Department of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine at the Rutgers (now Robert Wood
Johnson) Medical School of the University of Medicine and
Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), New Brunswick , NJ,
in 1980. Most of his research career has focused on dioxin,
its receptor, and its biological activities and he has authored
more than 90 research articles. Among his most significant
contributions to toxicology are as a mentor and role model
to graduate students. Among his many accomplishments, he
was instrumental in the inception, development, and success
of the Joint Graduate Program in Toxicology sponsored by
Rutgers the State University of New Jersey and the Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School of UMDNJ, which has
successfully graduated more than 100 Ph.D. candidates in
Toxicology.
Professor Gallo’s educational activities go beyond the
university. He has been very active in resurrecting the
the Gordon Conference on Toxicology, one of the most
important educational opportunities available to the
toxicological community. He has also served on numerous
national committees, including NAS/NRC Committees, the
EPA Science Advisory Board, and the National Toxicology
Program Board of Scientific Counselors, among others.
He brings his experiences on these panels directly to the
students to insure that they have an appreciation of the part
that their own research may play in deciding upon national
policies relating to chemicals.
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up-to-date information at www.toxicology.org
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