MBL President and Director to Receive Genetics Education Award

Contacts: Diana Kenney, MBL: dkenney@mbl.edu
Nalini Padmanabhan, ASHG: press@ashg.org

BETHESDA, MD—Huntington F. Willard, Ph.D., President and Director of the Marine Biological Laboratory and Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago, is one of three recipients of the 2015 Award for Excellence in Human Genetics Education by the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG).

Huntington F. Willard has been honored for his exceptional contributions to genetics education by the American Society of Human Genetics. Photo credit: Duke University

The ASHG award recognizes an individual or group for contributions of exceptional quality and importance to human genetics education internationally. Awardees have had long-standing involvement in genetics education, producing diverse contributions of substantive influence on individuals and/or organizations.

Co-recipients of the award this year with Dr. Willard are Robert L. Nussbaum, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Invitae and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco; and Roderick R. McInnes, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital and Alva Chair in Human Genetics at McGill University.

Individually and together, the ASHG Awards Committee noted, each of this year’s recipients is an accomplished geneticist and educator.

Dr. Willard’s research has long focused on the structure and function of chromosomes and genomes, work that led to his being elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Since the early 1980s, in addition to his research, he has developed and directed educational programs at the medical, graduate, and undergraduate levels in human genetics, genomics, and computational biology at universities in Canada and the United States. He also developed educational programs and a four-year undergraduate curriculum as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, in order to engage students in research and increase the numbers of students entering graduate programs.

While serving on the faculty at Duke University prior to his appointment at MBL, Dr. Willard’s leadership roles and honors for educational initiatives included: Director, Undergraduate Program in Genome Sciences and Policy (2008-2014); Arts & Sciences Faculty Dean’s List (top 5 percent of student evaluations) (2009, 2010, 2011); and Director, Graduate Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (2005-2008). Previously, at Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Willard directed the Graduate Program in Genetics (1992-2001) and in 2001 received the university’s Outstanding Faculty Award for Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Training Programs.

Since 2001, Drs. Willard, Nussbaum and McInnes, have collaboratively authored the sixth, seventh, and eighth editions of the human genetics textbook Genetics in Medicine. Drs. Willard and McInnes, along with original author Margaret W. Thompson, Ph.D., were also co-authors of the textbook’s fifth edition, which was published in 1991. In addition to co-authoring Genetics in Medicine, Dr. Willard has co-edited several editions of the reference textbook Genomic and Personalized Medicine.

ASHG also recognizes the substantial contributions of all three awardees to the Society. Dr. Willard was a member of the ASHG Board of Directors from 1994-1996 and again from 2000-2003 and was the Society’s President in 2001. For his contributions to the field of human genetics, he received the ASHG William Allan Award in 2009.

The ASHG press release, with more information on the 2015 Excellence in Human Genetics Education awardees, is here.

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The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery and improving the human condition through research and education in biology, biomedicine, and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.