Professor Robert Horvitz ForMemRS

H. Robert Horvitz received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002. He is the David H. Koch Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Neurobiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital; and a Member of the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

Robert received S. B. degrees in mathematics and economics from MIT. He performed his PhD studies at Harvard University with James Watson and Walter Gilbert. Robert was a postdoctoral fellow with Sydney Brenner at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at MIT in 1978 and became Professor in 1986.

He is a former President of the Genetics Society of America. Robert has served on many editorial boards, visiting committees and advisory committees and has received numerous awards and honours. He has been a consultant to companies in the field of biomedicine.

Professional position

  • Member, David H Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Professor of Biology, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Council, Institute of Medicine
  • Scientific Advisory Board, Novartis Institutes For BioMedical Research (Cambridge), Novartis International AG
  • Chair, Medical & Scientific Advisory Board, MPM Capital
  • Executive Committee, Coalition for the Life Sciences
  • Board Observer, PureTech Ventures
  • Chair, Board of Trustees, Society for Science and the Public
  • Consultant, Epizyme
  • Board Observer, KEW Group
  • Neurobiologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Nominations Committee Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Scientific Advisory Board, Mitokyne

Subject groups

  • Biochemistry and molecular cell biology

    Biochemistry and molecular biology

  • Anatomy, physiology and neurosciences

    Development and control of behaviour, Cellular neuroscience

Awards

  • Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

    Jointly with Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death.

Professor Robert Horvitz ForMemRS
Elected 2009