Robert A. Weinberg is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Bob and his colleagues isolated the first human cancer-causing gene, the ras oncogene, and the first known tumor suppressor gene, Rb, the retinoblastoma gene. Bob is the author or editor of five books and more than 420 articles. His three most recent books include Racing to the Beginning of the Road: The Search for the Origin of Cancer; Genes and the Biology of Cancer; co-authored with Dr. Harold E. Varmus, former Director of the National Institutes of Health, and The Biology of Cancer; a textbook for advanced undergraduates and doctoral students. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the 1997 U.S. National Medal of Science.
Born in Pittsburgh in 1942, Bob received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biology from MIT. He did postdoctoral research at the Weizmann Institute and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, and then returned to MIT in 1972. In 1982, he was appointed Professor of Biology at MIT and also became one of the five original members of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
