SLAS Elects Three New Members of the Board of Directors

For Immediate Release:
December 14, 2011
Contact Information:
Anne O’Day
Telephone: +1.630.305.0003
aoday@slas.org
SLAS Elects Three New Members of the Board of Directors
CHICAGO – The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), a multi-disciplinary,
non-profit scientific association spanning diverse industries and technology sectors, positions
itself for the future with the recent addition of three newly elected members of the Board of
Directors. The results of the election are now complete and certified, and all new Board member
terms commence January 31, 2012.
“SLAS is pleased to announce and welcome three highly qualified individuals as members to the
SLAS Board of Directors,” says Michelle Palmer, SLAS president. “Adding the expertise and
diversity of Frank Fan, Robyn Rourick and Daniel Sipes will help SLAS fulfill its mission of being
the preeminent global organization for laboratory science and technology professionals.”
The newly elected members of the SLAS Board of Directors are:
• Frank Fan, Ph.D., Promega Corporation
Frank Fan is a Director of Research at Madison, WI-based Promega Corporation. His
group focuses on developing assays and technologies for cellular analysis and drug
discovery. Previously, Fan was a Senior Investigator in the anti-infectives division at
GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals. He is an active member of SLAS, serving as co-chair
of SLAS2012, and has chaired several symposia in the past. He is also an editor for
several scientific journals. Fan earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of
Iowa and a B.S. degree in biology from Nankai University, Tianjin, China. He did his postdoctoral
research in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale
University, New Haven, CT.
• Robyn Rourick, M.S., Genentech
Robyn Rourick brings to the SLAS Board of Directors more than 20 years of industrial
experience in development, direction and management of pharmaceutical sciences,
analytical chemistry and DMPK. She is currently Senior Manager of Study Operations,
Development Sciences at Genentech in San Francisco, where she oversees non-clinical
studies for multiple therapeutic programs. Rourick is an active member of SLAS, serving
on the Executive Council of the Laboratory Automation Section. She is also affiliated with
the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and the American Chemical
Society. Rourick holds an M.S. degree in forensic chemistry from the University of New
Haven and a B.S. degree in chemistry from Fairfield University, both in Connecticut.
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SLAS: 2012 Board of Directors
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• Daniel Sipes, M.S., The Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation
Sipes is Director of Advanced Automation Technologies at the Genomics Institute of the
Novartis Research Foundation. In this role, he is responsible for development of
hardware and assay technologies to support large-scale cellular profiling and highthroughput
screening efforts. He is an active member of SLAS, is serving as co-chair of
SLAS2012, and has chaired tracks and sessions at numerous scientific conferences in
the past. Sipes holds an M.S. degree in immunology from the University of California,
Davis, where he focused on molecular biology. He also holds a B.S. degree in molecular
biology with a minor in chemistry from California State University, Sacramento.
The three board members whose terms close in January are:
• Robert Ames, Ph.D., GlaxoSmithKline
• William Janzen, Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Michelle Palmer, Ph.D., Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
Existing members of the SLAS Board of Directors are:
• Jason Abbas, M.S., Syngenta
• David Dorsett, M.B.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Jeff Paslay, Ph.D., Paslay Consulting Group
• Erik Rubin, Ph.D., Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Mary Jo Wildey, Ph.D., Merck Research Labs
• Andy Zaayenga, HighRes Biosolutions
# # #
The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) is an international community
of more than 15,000 individual scientists, engineers, researchers, technologists and others from
academic, government and commercial laboratories. The SLAS mission is to be the preeminent
global organization providing forums for education and information exchange and to encourage
the study of, and improve the practice of laboratory science and technology. For more
information, visit http://www.SLAS.org.