Dennis A. Dougherty, Ph.D., Co-Chair
Dr. Dougherty is the George Grant Hoag Professor of Chemistry, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, at California Institute of Technology. Dr. Dougherty’s pioneering and interdisciplinary research at the intersection of physical organic chemistry and neurobiology has helped advance pharmaceutical sciences. Dr. Dougherty is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a recipient of the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Dougherty earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Princeton University, and his B.S./M.S. in Chemistry from Bucknell University.

Henry A. Lester, Ph.D., Co-Chair
Dr. Lester is the Bren Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Lester is a leading electrophysiologist whose academic and pharmaceutical research expands into fields of molecular neuroscience, advanced instrumentation, physiology and pharmacology. Dr. Lester is a member of the National Advisory Mental Health Council of the NIMH, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Physiological Society, the Society of General Physiologists, the Society for Neuroscience, the Society of Biological Psychiatry, as well as previously a member of the executive board of the Biophysical Society. He has published over 200 papers on ion channels, receptors, and transporters. Dr. Lester earned a Ph.D. in Biophysics at Rockefeller University, and his A.B. in Chemistry & Physics from Harvard University.

Lawrence Steinman, M.D.
Dr. Steinman is a Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, specializing in Pediatrics and Genetics, at Stanford University. He also serves as the Chair of Stanford University's Program in Immunology. He is a leading researcher in Multiple Sclerosis and Immunology. Dr. Steinman founded Bayhill Therapeutics, a Stanford-based company focused on the treatment of autoimmune diseases, as well as Neurocrine Biosciences and Nuon Therapeutics. He is a Board member of Neuronyx, an SAB member of Peptimmune, and was previously a Board member of Centocor and an SAB member of Roche. Dr. Steinman was previously a Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where he also did his post-doctoral Fellowship. He did his residency at Stanford University, and had an NIH Fellowship in Chemical Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Steinman received his M.D. from Harvard University and his B.A. in Physics from Dartmouth College.

Robert H. Grubbs, Ph.D.
Dr. Grubbs, 2005 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, is the Atkins Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Grubbs's pioneering research in the area of synthetic chemistry has been the basis of several successful technology start-ups. Professor Grubbs was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Grubbs' awards have included Alfred Sloan Fellow, Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, ACS National Award in Organometallic Chemisty, the Arthur Cope Scholar Award and the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from University of Florida and M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University.

Kendall N. Houk, Ph.D.
Dr. Houk is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles. A leading authority on theoretical organic chemistry and computer modeling, Dr. Houk has served as the Chairman of the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He is a Fellow of the AAAS and of the WATOC. Dr. Houk was the Dreyfus Teacher Scholar and a Fellow of the Alfred Sloan Foundation. He received the Schrodinger Medal, the von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award, the Akron A.C.S. Section Award, and an Arthur Cope Scholar Award. He has published over 400 articles in refereed journals and was the 35th most-cited chemist in the period 1981-1997. He received his A.B., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University.

Steven E. Hyman, M.D.
Dr. Hyman is the Provost of Harvard University. A leading scholar at the intersection of molecular neurobiology and psychiatry, Dr. Hyman has been the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, the federal agency charged with generating the knowledge needed to understand, treat, and prevent mental illness. Dr. Hyman also served as director of psychiatry research at Massachusetts General Hospital, director of the interdisciplinary Division on Additions at the Harvard Medical School, and the first faculty director of the University’s Interfaculty Initiative on Mind/Brain/Behavior. Dr. Hyman received his BA from Yale in 1974 (summa cum laude), and his MA from the University of Cambridge in 1976, where he was a Mellon fellow studying the history and philosophy of science. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School (cum laude) in 1980. Following an internship in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a residency in psychiatry at McLean Hospital, and a clinical fellowship in neurology at MGH, he was postdoctoral fellow at Harvard in molecular biology.