October 10, 2006 – (BRONX, N.Y.) – Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and co-chair of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and the Falkenstein Professor of Cancer Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine.
Members are elected through a highly selective process that recognizes people who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. Election is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health.
Dr. Horwitz, who was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 2005, is world-renowned for her pioneering work in elucidating the mechanisms of action of anti-tumor agents. Her pivotal research in the 1980's eventually led to the development of Taxol®, one of the most important anti-cancer agents ever developed. In recent years, she has focused on the mechanisms of drug resistance, an increasingly serious problem in cancer treatment.
Dr. Horwitz received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Brandeis University. She joined the Albert Einstein College of Medicine faculty in 1968, and became a professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology in 1980 and the co-chair of that department in 1985. Dr. Horwitz was appointed Rose C. Falkenstein Professor of Cancer Research in 1986, Associate Director for Therapeutics at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center in 2000, and Distinguished Professor in 2005.
Dr. Horwitz is a past-president of the American Association for Cancer Research. She has received numerous honors and awards including the Cain Memorial Award of the American Association for Cancer Research in 1992, the ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics in 1994, the C. Chester Stock Award from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1996, the Barnard College Medal of Distinction in 2003, and the Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science & Technology in 2004.
Dr. Horwitz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994 and she received the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize from Harvard Medical School in 2005. She is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.