Randy Schekman Named PNAS Editor-in-Chief

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), announces the appointment by the NAS Council of Randy Schekman, Ph.D., as the journal’s new Editor-in-Chief.Schekman is professor of cell and developmental biology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992, Schekman served on the Editorial Board of PNAS in 2001-2005 and is currently the chair of the Academy’s Biological Sciences division.

Schekman’s research focuses on the processes of membrane assembly, vesicular transport, and membrane fusion among organelles of the secretory pathway. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry at Stanford University and performed postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego. Among Schekman’s honors are the Eli Lilly Award in microbiology, the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award in basic biomedical science, the Gairdner International Award, and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. He is scientific director of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research and past president of the American Society for Cell Biology.

“As the flagship publication of the Academy, PNAS has a responsibility to represent a broad range of scientific disciplines and to do so with the highest standards of peer-reviewed scholarship,” says Schekman. “In the years of my association as a member, I have come to value the Academy andits role in science education and policy here and around the world. I welcome the opportunity to guide PNAS’s contact to the next generation of scientists.”

Schekman succeeds former Editor-in-Chief Nicholas R. Cozzarelli, who died of Burkitt’s lymphoma in March. Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., took on additional leadership duties for PNAS during Cozzarelli’s illness and has served as Senior Editor since January 2005.