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service to society
I want to call attention to Leroy Hood, recipient of the 2017 National Academy of Sciences Award for Chemistry in Service to Society.
Among his many accomplishments, Hood invented, commercialized, and developed multiple chemical tools that address biological complexity, including the automated DNA sequencer which spearheaded the Human Genome Project.
I want to especially note the NAS acknowledgement that commercialization is service to society, a connection that often goes unrecognized.
I've been aware of Dr. Hood since around the time of his breakthroughs in gene sequencing in the 1980's. More recently, Dr. Hood is co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. I'm pleased that his contributions are celebrated this year.