2022-Gala Program Online Honoree -4.14.2022

HONOREE
JOAN V. RUDERMAN ’69, PhD
National Academy of Sciences
Joan Ruderman is a senior biologist and lecturer
at the High Meadows Environmental Institute at
Princeton University. She previously served as
the Marion V. Nelson Professor of Cell Biology
at Harvard Medical School and as the president
and director of the Marine Biological Laboratory
in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She earned a
doctorate in biology from MIT.
Trained as a developmental biologist, most of her research has focused
on the molecular mechanisms that regulate cell division and early
development. More recently, she has turned her attention to the public
health and wildlife effects of environmental contaminants that mimic or
interfere with estrogen, testosterone, and other hormones. These include
chemicals used to make many of the plastics in consumer products
encountered in everyday life, as well as pesticides, flame retardants, and
chemicals used for fracking in shale gas production.
As senior science advisor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at
Harvard, she helped to establish a program that covers the crosscutting
roles of water in areas that range from human health to geopolitical
disputes. Among her national leadership roles, she has served on the
medical advisory board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and
the scientific advisory board of the Ellison Medical Foundation. She is a
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National
Academy of Sciences.