Dr. Lydia Villa-Komaroff was born on August 7, 1947, in Las Vegas but grew up Santa Fe, New Mexico after her parents immigrated to the United States to escape the Mexican Revolution. At a young age, she knew she wanted to be a scientist. Initially she enrolled at University of Washington to study Chemisty, but due to sexism from her advisors and after being denied a transfer to Johns Hopkins because she was a woman, she transferred to Goucher College. She obtained a BA (1970) in Biology and a PhD (1976) in Cell Biology from MIT, becoming the third Mexican-American woman to receive a Science PhD in the United States. During her PhD she attended the first ever official SACNAS Meeting in 1973 and became a founding member.
She completed postdoctoral work at Harvard University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where she worked with Dr. Walter Gilbert. Her work contributed to the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of insulin production by bacteria, which many mark as the beginning of the biotechnology industry in 1978. She held several faculty positions including six years at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and twelve years at Harvard Medical School. She was recruited as Vice-President of Research at Northwestern University in 1996 before becoming Vice President for Research and Chief Operating Officer of Whitehead Institute in 2003.
Some of her awards and accolades include a 1999 induction into Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Hall of Fame and the 2013 Woman of Distinction by the American Association of University Women. In 2005, she became the CSO of the biotechnology company Cytonome /ST LLC and CEO the following year. She is currently the Founder and President of Intersections SBD (Science, Business, & Diversity) Consulting, which is focused on increasing diversity in academia and business.
References:
- https://amysmartgirls.com/20for2020-dr-78d197fdbf3c
- https://web.archive.org/web/20170326162223/http://www.aauw.org/article/hooray-for-women-in-stem-meet-lydia-villa-komaroff-2013-woman-of-distinction/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lydia-Villa-Komaroff
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC392859/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20150919062106/http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/villa-komaroff-present-sdi-and-five
- https://web.archive.org/web/20140311194936/http://www.colormagazineusa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57%3Alydia-villa-komaroff&catid=64%3Alifestyle
- https://www.ncbiotech.org/events/intersections-science-business-diversity
Feature Image Source: CC BY-SA 4.0 Anthony Komaroff
