Funding Briefs

The nation’s second-largest foundation is doing some in-house spring cleaning—the second time in as many years. Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, a collective of seven funds established by Sun Oil Co. founder Joseph N. Pew and family, has decided to streamline its recently installed management hierarchy by replacing it with a “flat” structure, eliminating four vice presidential slots and installing. individual program directors to manage each of the trusts six program areas, chief among which is its Health and Human Services department. This department, which oversees the Pew Scholars program and provides funds for research and.training in the biomedical sciences, doles out between 30% and 40% of the trust’s grant money annually. “The grantmaking policies remain the same,” says Tim Murray, acting director of Health Sciences and Human Services. “It Is business as usual for the application review process. This is strictly a structural reorganization.” Murray says that a permanent director for his department is expected to be named within six months. (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 3 Parkway, Suite 501, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102 215-568-3330.) New Leadership At Dreyfus Robert L. Lichter, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation’s new executive director, came aboard March 1 with a first-hand understanding of the challenges faced-by scientists in an academic setting. Lichter, a chemist, has had several academic positions within New York’s city and state university systems: As vice provost for research and graduate studies at SUNY-Stony Brook, he oversaw administration of some $70 million in external grants and contracts; previously he chaired the chemistry department of New York City’s Hunter College. He was also at one time a regional director of grants for Tucson, Ariz.-based Research Corporation. Lichter anticipates no major changes in the administration of the Dreyfus organization, which focuses on programs supporting excellence in college-level chemistry teaching and research, although one of its newest efforts—a grants program in chemistry for liberal arts colleges, which is now in its third year—is about to undergo a reassessment. The foundation, created in 1986, is the legacy of two brothers who pioneered the synthetic fibers industry by developing a method for manufacturing cellulose acetate. It annually grants nearly $2 million in support of advancements in chemistry, chemical engineering, and related sciences. (The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, 445 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y 10022212-753-1760.) New Positions In Biology Created The Lucile R Markey Charitable Trust has awarded Northwestern University and Rockefeller University gifts of $5 million each to establish or expand basic research program in cell differentiation and development. Chicago-based NQrthwestern is actively recruiting a director and five junior faculty members for its new developmental biology program. In addition, the university intends to hire four physicians to work with the clinical aspects of the research startup. Funding from the gift also permits the construction of a transgenic mouse facility. Research in developmental biology already exists at Northwestern in several departments and at the university’s Cancer Center and its Center for Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition. These efforts will now be coordinated under the new umbrella research program. Future research under the grant will emphasize control and coordination of gene expression, cell-to-cell interaction and signaling, and immunogenetics. The second grant recipient. New York City’s Rockefeller University, will use the Markey funds to expand its University Fellows Program. Specifically, the university plans to hire four young scientists who will join the program as assistant professors and concentrate in molecular, cell, and developmental biology. Working in renovated working space tailored to their specifications, these investigators will each head an independent laboratory focusing on biomedical science topics of their choosing. (Rockefeller University, 212-570-8000. Northwestern University, 312-491-3 741.)

Funding Briefs

The Scientist Staff

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