The Science Philanthropy Alliance welcomes a new board member, Erin O’Shea, who became the new president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute on September 1. Erin replaces Robert Tjian, who stepped down from his role as president of HHMI to return to the University of California at Berkeley, as HHMI’s representative on the Alliance’s board of directors.

O’Shea is a leader in the fields of gene regulation, signal transduction, and systems biology. An HHMI investigator since 2000, she has served on the faculty of Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. O’Shea received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Smith College and her PhD degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“We are thrilled to welcome such a distinguished scientist to our board. Erin has already been active in the Alliance community and has shared with our members and with science philanthropists her insights on the most effective ways to support basic science,” said Marc Kastner, president of the Alliance.

“At the same time, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to Robert Tjian, who was one of the Alliance’s founding board members. His commitment and passion to basic science, understanding of the challenges and solutions for funding basic science, and generosity in sharing those insights, have been invaluable to our community,” continued Kastner. “While he has moved on from HHMI, we look forward to his continued engagement with the Alliance and with science philanthropists worldwide.”