Google’s Board of Directors unanimously elected Princeton University’s President and Professor of Molecular Biology, Shirley M. Tilghman, to join their ranks due to her reputation as a pioneer in academic research.
Canadian-born Tilghman joins directors such as Stanford president John Hennessy, Intel’s Paul Otellini, as part of Google’s ongoing commitment to developing academic and technological advancements.
“Google is a company from which I can learn a lot because Google fundamentally is in the information business,” Tilghman said in a phone interview with the Daily Princetonian. “Universities of course have to be adept in the distribution of knowledge, and also in the dissemination of knowledge.”
Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Eric Schmidt, himself a Princeton graduate, described Tilghman as a person of “raw intellect.”
Dr. Tilghman is most recognized for her postdoctoral work with the National Institutes of Health, where she contributed to the first successful cloning of the mammalian gene.
From there, she made additional breakthroughs in the field of mammalian genetics as a member of the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia and an adjunct associate professor of human genetics and biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania.
She was also a member of the National Research Council’s committee that set the blueprint for the US effort in the Human Genome Project Initiative.
This isn’t the first time Google has tapped geneticists. CNet reported in 2002, that Google tested a supercomputer-esque toolbar to help Stanford University’s researchers decipher how genetic information is converted into proteins.
Schmidt described Tilghman as a natural leader and motivator.
“It’s an honor to welcome a woman of Dr. Tilghman’s reputation to our board,” said Schmidt. “Google is a company born out of university research, so we look forward to tapping into her extraordinary talents as an accomplished academic, and as a champion of discovery.”
