Nancy H. Hopkins

Nancy Hopkins is an Amgen professor of biology, appointed to encourage research and education in the life sciences. She is an alumna of Radcliffe College and earned a PhD from the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Harvard University in 1971. Professor Hopkins joined MIT in 1973 as an assistant professor at the Center for Cancer Research, where she worked on RNA tumor viruses in mice. Her work has helped to identify the role genes play in longevity and cancer predisposition in adult fish (important research that could lead to the treatment and understanding of human ailments). Professor Hopkins chaired the committee that wrote the 1999 Report on the Status of Women Faculty in the School of Science at MIT and she is a contributing author to Becoming MIT: Moments of Decision, a joint project of MIT150 and the MIT Press, edited by MIT professor David Kaiser.