Michael Marletta
UCSF Adjunct Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and PhD graduate in Pharmaceutical Chemistry Michael Marletta, who is also chair of the Department of Chemistry and Aldo DeBenedictis Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln that calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.
Michael Marletta holds joint appointments at Cal's Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, and at UCSF's Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. He is also a faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Marletta's academic career has taken him from coast to coast. Born in 1951 in Rochester, New York, Marletta earned his A.B. in biology and chemistry at the State University of New York at Fredonia, in 1973. He completed his PhD at UCSF in 1977 in Pharmaceutical Chemistry under research advisor George L. Kenyon, followed by postdoctoral training at MIT from 1978 to 1980 under mentor Chris Walsh.
After his postdoctoral training, Marletta remained at MIT and taught as both an assistant and associate professor in toxicology from 1980 to 1987. He then joined the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he taught in both the College of Pharmacy and the medical school. While in Michigan, in 1995, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and in 1997, he became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Marletta came to UC Berkeley's Department of Chemistry as a Miller Visiting Research Professor. He was hired as a professor in 2001, and since 2002, he has been the Aldo DeBenedictis Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. In July, 2005, Marletta became the Chair of the Department of Chemistry.
To say that I am very pleased and honored seems like such an understatement," says Marletta. "I am also grateful beyond words to the students I have worked with and learned from over the years. Their excitement, dedication and ideas are responsible for the recognition given by the NAS election."
Photo/Peg Skorpinski
Links:
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry
National Academy of Sciences (news release)
