Terry L. Orr-Weaver

Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Primary Section: 26, Genetics
Secondary Section: 22, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Membership Type:
Member (elected 2006)

Biosketch

Terry L. Orr-Weaver is Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Biology at MIT and Member Emeritus of the Whitehead Institute, which she initially joined in 1987.  She obtained her PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Jack Szostak at Harvard University in 1984 and did postdoctoral training in Dr. Allan Spradling’s laboratory at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.  Dr. Orr-Weaver has been committed to training and mentoring young research scientists throughout her career.  In her laboratory she trained 24 PhD students and 26 postdoctoral fellows, in addition to many undergraduate students.  She co-headed the PhD program in biology at MIT for four years and directed the Whitehead Fellows program for nine years.  In her leadership roles she served as President of the Genetics Society of America and of the National Drosophila Board of Directors.  She was the chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Children’s Hospital in Boston and the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee.  In addition to membership in the NAS, she is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  She received the FASEB Excellence in Science award in 2013.

Research Interests

Terry Orr-Weaver's research addresses regulation of cell division during development, and her laboratory has discovered crucial control proteins for chromosome segregation and DNA replication as well as providing key insights into how cell size is regulated during development.

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