Tim Stearns (born 1961 in
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns in Suffolk County, New York. Founded in 1653, it is located on the North Shore (Long Island), north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Lo ...
) is an
American biologist and university administrator, and is the Dean of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies, Vice President of Education, and Head of Laboratory at
The Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York (state), New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medica ...
. Stearns was formerly the Frank Lee and Carol Hall Professor in the Department of Biology at
Stanford University, with appointments in the Department of Genetics and the Cancer Center in the
Stanford Medical School
Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...
. Stearns served as chair of the Department of Biology at Stanford as well as Acting Dean of Research and Senior Associate Vice Provost of Research. Stearns is an HHMI Professor, and is a member of
JASON
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek mythology, mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was marri ...
, a scientific advisory group. He has served on the editorial boards of ''
The Journal of Cell Biology
The ''Journal of Cell Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Rockefeller University Press.
History
In the early 1950s, a small group of biologists began to explore intracellular anatomy using the emerging technology of el ...
'',
''Genetics'' and ''
Molecular Biology of the Cell
''Molecular Biology of the Cell'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Society for Cell Biology. It covers research on the molecular basis of cell structure and function. According to the ''Journal Citation Rep ...
''.
Education
Stearns received his B.S. in genetics from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...
and did his undergraduate thesis work in the lab of Tom Fox on nuclear control of mitochondrial function in yeast. He received his Ph.D. in biology from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
. His Ph.D. advisor at MIT was
David Botstein
David Botstein (born September 8, 1942) is an American biologist serving as the chief scientific officer of Calico. He served as the director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University from 2003 to 2013, where ...
, and the title of his thesis was "Genetic analysis of the yeast microtubule cytoskeleton." Stearns' thesis identified exceptions to the genetic
complementation test
In genetics, complementation occurs when two strains of an organism with different homozygous recessive mutations that produce the same mutant phenotype (for example, a change in wing structure in flies) have offspring that express the wild-typ ...
that were useful for defining genetic interactions and for the first time used the term "synthetic lethality" in the modern sense of two non-lethal mutations resulting in lethality in the double mutant. Stearns credits Botstein with instilling in him a commitment to teaching, and the belief that teaching and research go hand-in-hand.
Professional career
Stearns is known for his work on problems in cell biology and developmental biology, with a focus on the structure and function of the
centrosome
In cell biology, the centrosome (Latin centrum 'center' + Greek sōma 'body') (archaically cytocentre) is an organelle that serves as the main microtubule organizing center (MTOC) of the animal cell, as well as a regulator of cell-cycle pro ...
and
cilium
The cilium, plural cilia (), is a membrane-bound organelle found on most types of eukaryotic cell, and certain microorganisms known as ciliates. Cilia are absent in bacteria and archaea. The cilium has the shape of a slender threadlike proje ...
of eukaryotic cells. He was a
Helen Hay Whitney
Helen Julia Hay Whitney (March 11, 1875 – September 24, 1944) was an American poet, writer, racehorse owner/breeder, socialite, and philanthropist. She was a member by marriage of the prominent Whitney family of New York.
Early life
She was t ...
postdoctoral fellow with
Marc Kirschner
Marc Wallace Kirschner (born February 28, 1945) is an Americans, American cell biologist and biochemist and the founding chair of the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. He is known for major discoveries in cell and developmen ...
at
UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...
, where he published work on gamma-tubulin and ''in vitro'' reconstitution of the centrosome. Stearns has been a faculty member in the Department of Biology at Stanford since 1993. His major research accomplishments include the identification and characterization of new members of the tubulin superfamily of proteins, elucidation of mechanisms of centrosome duplication, and identification of properties of the primary cilium.
Stearns has also been active in undergraduate and graduate education, being named an HHMI Professor in 2002, and has chaired the Education committees of the
American Society for Cell Biology
The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is a professional society that was founded in 1960.[Genetics Society of America
The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is a scholarly membership society of more than 5,500 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931. The Society was formed from the reorganization of the Joint Genetics Sections of the
American Soci ...]
. He created a pre-grad program at Stanford to train the next generation of leaders in biology research through close interaction with faculty members in course work, research and advising. Stearns taught the Yeast Genetics course at
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, and quantitative biology.
It is one of 68 institutions supported by the Cancer Centers ...
, and has also taught laboratory workshops in South Africa, Chile, Ghana, and Tanzania.
Stearns is an advisor to the US government on science and technology matters. He was a member of th
Defense Science Study Group and is a current member of
JASON
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek mythology, mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was marri ...
, an independent scientific advisory group to the US that provides expertise on problems related to national security.
Personal life
Stearns and his wife reside in NYC. They previously lived near Stanford University and tended a fruit tree orchard originally planted by John Hensill, former dean of Natural Sciences at San Francisco State University, and a founder of the Redwood City Farmers Market. Stearns is an accomplished musician, and student of American traditional music and early jazz.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stearns, Tim
Stanford University Department of Biology faculty
Cornell University alumni
1961 births
Cell biologists
Stanford University faculty
Stanford University School of Medicine faculty
American molecular biologists
American geneticists
Members of JASON (advisory group)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni
University of California, San Francisco alumni
Living people