President of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Bruce Stillman to
Receive Honorary Doctorate of Science at C.W. Post Commencement

Brookville, NY – Leading cancer researcher and one of the chief architects of the Human Cancer Genome Project, Bruce Stillman, Ph.D., president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Science at the 49th Commencement ceremonies at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 13, 2007. Dr. Stillman will deliver the keynote address at graduation exercises that begin at 9:30 a.m.

A native of Australia, Dr. Stillman earned a bachelor of science degree with honors at Sydney University and a Ph.D. at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University. He relocated in 1979 to work in the United States at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, one of the most prestigious research facilities in the world, as a postdoctoral fellow. He was appointed director of the Cancer Center in 1992, a position that he continues to hold today. In 1994, he succeeded Dr. James D. Watson as director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and was appointed president in 2003.

Dr. Stillman’s research focuses on the mechanism and regulation of duplication of DNA and chromatin in cells, a process that ensures accurate inheritance of genetic information from one cell generation to the next. He has received numerous honors including his 1993 election as a Fellow of The Royal Society, an independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth, dedicated to promoting excellence in science. In 1994, he was awarded the Julian Wells Medal (Australia), and in 1999, he was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia (AO). Dr. Stillman was elected in 2000 to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2004, he was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation with Dr. Thomas Kelly. In 2006, he received the American Cancer Society Basic Science Award from the Society of Surgical Oncology. He also has received four honorary doctorates.

Dr. Stillman is a past recipient of research awards from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund and the Rita Allen Foundation. He is a former chair of the Experimental Virology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health and is a member of a number of academic societies. In addition, he is a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and counsels a number of other research organizations including the M.I.T. Cancer Center and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. He is on the boards of the New York Biotechnology Association and AMDeC, an academic medicine-development organization in New York.

Dr. Stillman is past co-chair of the Board of Scientific Councilors of the National Cancer Institute and a member of the NCI Executive Committee and completed a term as vice-chair of the National Cancer Policy Board. Most recently, he was a member of the National Cancer Institute advisory committee that proposed the Cancer Genome Atlas, a project to link genetic changes in tumor DNA with diagnosis and therapy of human cancer.

The C.W. Post Class of 2007 includes 964 baccalaureate degree candidates, 1,832 master's degree candidates, 14 graduates receiving the Psy.D. in clinical psychology and 5 receiving the Ph.D. in information studies. This year, C.W. Post’s commencement ceremonies also include graduates from Southampton College and the Southampton Graduate Campus of Long Island University.

For more information call the C.W. Post Commencement Hotline at 516-299-3242 or visit www.liu.edu/cwpcommencement

Posted: May 10, 2007