Dong creates advisory board to assist expanding research center

Sci Adv Board

A Nobel Prize Laureate along with members of the National Academy of Sciences and other renowned medical researchers are serving on a newly created board to help guide The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota into its growing future.

Dr. Zigang Dong, Executive Director of The Hormel Institute, developed The Hormel Institute Scientific Advisory Board over the past year to assist with current and future research decisions for the Institute. Board members will consult Institute leadership regularly, providing helpful advice and information based on their vast experiences, including best practices for numerous areas related to operating a medical research center and recruiting top talent.

One of the eight board members is Dr. Robert Huber, a 1988 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry for his work in determining a photosynthetic reaction center’s 3-D structure. Several members, including Huber, also are elected members of the National Academy of Sciences, a private, nonprofit organization of the nation’s leading researchers. Election to the National Academy of Sciences is deemed one of the highest honors for a scientist.

“It truly is a privilege to have the support and guidance of this group of highly successful and influential researchers to ensure that our ever-growing Institute is making the right moves during our historic era of growth and research progress,” said Dong, a McKnight Presidential Professor in Cancer Prevention who chairs the board.

This fall, The Hormel Institute Scientific Advisory Board met for the first time in Zhengzhou, China, during the 6th China-U.S. Forum on Frontiers of Cancer Research conference co-led by The Hormel Institute.

Next year’s 7th China-U.S. Forum on Frontiers of Cancer Research conference will be hosted at The Hormel Institute in its new Live Learning Center that remains under construction on the Institute’s west side. Some of the Scientific Advisory Board members will present at the conference. The Live Learning Center will feature innovative, global-communications technology in a 250-seat lecture with an adjacent hall for various uses, including scientific poster sessions during international cancer research conferences.

Aside from Dong, members of The Hormel Institute Scientific Advisory Board include:

  • Webster Cavenee, of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in San Diego, Calif., who is a National Academy of Sciences member.
  • Carlo Croce, of The Ohio State University, who also is part of the National Academy of Sciences.
  • Waun Ki Hong, former head of the Division of Cancer Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, who is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He also was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the National Cancer Advisory Board from 2008 to 2014.
  • Christina Hoven, of Columbia University in New York, who is Director of the International Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health in the National Center for Disaster Preparedness and received the David E. Rogers Medal in Health Policy from Cornell University.
  • Robert Huber, of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany. Along with being a Nobel Prize Laureate, Huber also is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
  • Scott Lippman, Director of the University of California – San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center, who is a member of the prestigious Association of American Physicians, which is a nonprofit, professional organization that elects distinguished physicians for membership.
  • Peter Vogt, of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., who is a National Academy of Sciences member.

State-of-the-art communications technology in The Hormel Institute’s future Live Learning will help greatly in enhancing the Institute’s ability to receive and broadcast cancer research presentations and discussions, including facilitating meetings of the new Scientific Advisory Board without requiring all members to be present in the same room.