ANN ARBOR—Jack E. Dixon, Ph.D., the Minor J. Coon Professor of Biological Chemistry and chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry in the University of Michigan Medical School, is one of 60 U.S. scientists and 15 foreign associates elected May 2 to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

NAS members are elected in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original scientific research. Those elected
“For a scientist, election to the National Academy of Sciences is the highest recognition short of the Nobel Prize,” said Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D., the U-M’s executive vice president for medical affairs. “Jack Dixon is one of the nation’s pre-eminent biochemists. His work on peptides and more recently on the PTEN tumor suppressor gene has enormous applications in medicine. Jack has simultaneously been an innovator in education and administrative leadership. We are very proud to have him on our faculty at the U-M.”

Dixon studies the structure and function of the protein tyrosine phosphatases or PTPases and their important role in cellular signaling. He also has made fundamental contributions to scientific understanding of hormone biosynthesis and processing.

“In addition to his outstanding research contributions, Jack has chaired the faculty advisory committee for the U-M’s new Life Sciences Initiative,” said U-M President Lee C. Bollinger. “If there were a comparable honor for University citizenship, Jack would be one of the first members of the faculty to be inducted.”

Dixon came to Michigan in 1991 from Purdue University where he was the Harvey W. Wiley Distinguished Professor of biochemistry. He received a B.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1966 and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1971.

In addition to his NAS membership, Dixon is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Institute of Medicine and past-president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He also serves on the National Scientific Review Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dixon was named the Michigan Scientist of the Year in 1994. In 1997, he received the U-M Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award in Biomedical Research. In 1999, he was chosen as the U-M’s Henry Russel Lecturer, the highest honor the University gives to a senior faculty member.

Dixon said he was notified of his election in a series of early morning telephone calls from current U-M members. Next spring, he will attend a formal ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., where he will add his signature to a book with names of all NAS members elected since the Academy was established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

“You are always surprised when these things happen, but it’s great news,” Dixon said. “It is really gratifying, because we are elected by our peers who think highly of our scientific work. I’m delighted to be selected, but we have many other deserving people here at the U-M and I’m hopeful they will be elected also in coming years.”

Other U-M National Academy of Sciences members include: Richard D. Alexander, Robert Axelrod, Hyman Bass, Philip E. Converse, Minor J. Coon, H. Richard Crane, Horace W. Davenport, Thomas M. Donahue, Kent V. Flannery, Ronald Freedman, William Fulton, Stanley M. Garn, F.W. Gehring, Melvin Hochster, Joyce Marcus, Vincent Massey, James N. Morgan, J. Lawrence Oncley, Edward E. Smith and Henry T. Wright.

Jack E. DixonGilbert S. OmennLee C. BollingerAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences