Shirley M. Tilghman
Encyclopedia
Shirley Marie Tilghman, FRS
(née Caldwell; born 17 September 1946) is a scholar in molecular biology
and an academic administrator, the President of Princeton University
. She is the first woman to hold the position and only the second female president in the Ivy League
. A leader in the field of molecular biology
, Tilghman was a member of the Princeton faculty for 15 years before being named president.
in Winnipeg, Manitoba and received her Honours B.Sc. in chemistry from Queen's University
in Kingston, Ontario
, in 1968. After two years of secondary school teaching in Sierra Leone
, West Africa, she obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Temple University
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
under Richard W. Hanson.
focused on the regulation of genes during development, particularly in the field of genomic imprinting.
During postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health
, Tilghman made a number of discoveries while a member of the team which cloned the first mammalian gene. She went on to demonstrate that the globin gene was spliced, a finding that helped confirm some of the revolutionary theories then emerging about gene behavior. She continued to make scientific breakthroughs as an independent investigator at the Institute for Cancer Research
in Philadelphia and as an adjunct associate professor of Human Genetics at University of Pennsylvania
.
Tilghman went to Princeton University in 1986 as the Howard A. Prior Professor of the Life Sciences. Two years later, she also joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an investigator. She was a leader in the use of mice
to understand the behavior of genes by researching the effect of gene insertion in embryonic cells.
In 1998, she took on additional responsibilities as the founding director of Princeton's multi-disciplinary Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, while continuing to study how male and female genomes are packaged and the consequences of the differences for regulating embryo growth.
and became the 19th President of Princeton University in 2001. She was elected Princeton's first woman president on May 5, 2001, and assumed office on June 15, 2001. Under her administration, the University built a sixth residential college, named in honor of alumna Meg Whitman
, to accommodate an 11 percent expansion of the undergraduate student body (an increase of some 500 students), as recommended by a special committee of the Board of Trustees chaired by Paul M. Wythes.
The establishment of Whitman College
, together with the reconstruction of Butler College, accompanied a significant reconfiguration of Princeton’s residential college system, which now incorporates upperclassmen as well as freshmen and sophomores, providing new residential options and increasing opportunities for social interaction across the student body. In addition, an effort has been made to strengthen the relationship between the university and Princeton’s independent eating clubs, where most upperclassmen take their meals, with the goal of enhancing the undergraduate experience of all students.
Tilghman has presided over a number of academic initiatives, including the creation of a Center for African American Studies, the Lewis Center for the Arts (after alumnus Peter B. Lewis), the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment (after alumnus Gerhard R. Andlinger). Along with the renewal of the Department of Chemistry, these steps have both capitalized on Princeton’s existing strengths and broken new ground, ensuring that the university will, in Tilghman’s words, continue “to make the world a better place through the power of the mind and the imagination.”
More broadly, Tilghman’s presidency has placed an emphasis on increasing the diversity of Princeton’s faculty and students; widening access to the university through improvements to its generous financial aid program and the elimination of admission through “early decision”; fostering a multidisciplinary approach to teaching and research; and strengthening the university’s international perspective through a wide range of initiatives – from the Global Scholars Program, which brings international scholars to campus on a recurring basis, to the Bridge Year Program, which gives incoming freshmen an opportunity to defer their studies for a year in order to devote themselves to public service overseas.
For Tilghman, Princeton has two essential missions. “One is to ensure that our doors are open as wide as possible to every talented student in the world who is capable of doing the hard work we ask of them. And that means maintaining our commitment to financial aid, which is the tool – the critical tool – to get those students to Princeton. And the second thing is that we must address the most critical issues, and push back the frontiers of knowledge, and not just in science and technology, but in social policy, and in public policy, and in understanding the nature of the human condition.”
Although President Tilghman has been accused of favoring women in her hiring practices, in fact, most of her appointees have been men.
The women she has hired to senior positions include Amy Gutmann
(who was chosen as the President of the University of Pennsylvania in early 2004) as Provost, the second-most-powerful administrative position in the University, Anne-Marie Slaughter
as Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
as well as her successor Christina Paxson, Maria Klawe
as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (chosen as the President of Harvey Mudd College
in 2006), and Janet Lavin Rapelye as the Dean of Admission. Prominent men she has appointed include Charles Kalmbach as the Senior Vice President for Administration, the highest non-academic administrative post, David P. Dobkin
as Dean of the Faculty, Gutmann's replacement Christopher L. Eisgruber, and Klawe's replacement H. Vincent Poor.
Tilghman also signed on to the Ivy League
-wide Seven-week athletic moratorium, in which intercollegiate athletes were enjoined from taking part in supervised practices and other obligatory athletic activities for seven weeks during the academic year in order to encourage them to participate in other activities. Supporters of the proposal pointed to studies by former Princeton president William G. Bowen
, whose book The Game of Life described the widespread academic underperformance of college athletes. Detractors claimed that it represented an encroachment on students' freedom to use their time as they saw fit.
While Tilghman has disquieted some alumni by promoting a more diverse university community, establishing a single admission process, and broadening the range of residential and dining options available to students, she has also found strong support for these actions and the vision that underpins them.
, the National Academy of Sciences
, the Institute of Medicine
and the Royal Society of London. She was a founding member of the International Mammalian Genome Society
. She serves as a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
. From 1993 through 2000, Tilghman chaired Princeton’s Council on Science and Technology, which encourages teaching science and technology to students outside the sciences. In 1996, she received Princeton’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Nineteen Princeton graduating classes, from 1941 to 2005, have made President Tilghman an honorary member.
|url=http://www.fcihr.ca
since October 2005. As compensation for joining the board, she received 6,000 shares of stock that by 2005 were worth in excess of her Princeton compensation package that by 2003 had reached $533,057.
She also serves on the Queen's Chemistry Innovation Council
in order to help the development of the Chemistry program at Queen's.
"There are 25 years of good social science that demonstrate the many cultural practices that act collectively to discourage women from entering and continuing careers in science and engineering. The research is overwhelming, and it is there for anybody to see. On the other hand, the data that would suggest there are innate differences in the abilities of men and women to succeed in the natural sciences are nonexistent."
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
(née Caldwell; born 17 September 1946) is a scholar in molecular biology
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
and an academic administrator, the President of Princeton University
President of Princeton University
Princeton University is led by a President selected by the Board of Trustees. Until the accession of Woodrow Wilson, a political scientist, in 1902, they were all clergymen, as well as professors. President Tilghman is a biologist; her two predecessors were economists.-Presidents:# Reverend...
. She is the first woman to hold the position and only the second female president in the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
. A leader in the field of molecular biology
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
, Tilghman was a member of the Princeton faculty for 15 years before being named president.
Early life and family
Tilghman graduated from Kelvin High SchoolKelvin High School
Kelvin High School is a public high school, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.-History:Founded in 1912 as Kelvin Technical High School, the name was later shortened to Kelvin High School. The school is named after the mathematical physicist and engineer Sir William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin of...
in Winnipeg, Manitoba and received her Honours B.Sc. in chemistry from Queen's University
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
in Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
, in 1968. After two years of secondary school teaching in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, West Africa, she obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
under Richard W. Hanson.
Personal life
She married Joseph Tilghman in 1970. This marriage ended in the early 1980's, leaving Tilghman with custody of their young daughter (Rebecca) and infant son (Alex). She attributes her successful balancing of a scientific career and caring for her family to organization and focus. Her goal was to not feel guilty while at work or at home, instead focusing on the task at hand.Research
Tilghman's work in molecular geneticsMolecular genetics
Molecular genetics is the field of biology and genetics that studies the structure and function of genes at a molecular level. The field studies how the genes are transferred from generation to generation. Molecular genetics employs the methods of genetics and molecular biology...
focused on the regulation of genes during development, particularly in the field of genomic imprinting.
During postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
, Tilghman made a number of discoveries while a member of the team which cloned the first mammalian gene. She went on to demonstrate that the globin gene was spliced, a finding that helped confirm some of the revolutionary theories then emerging about gene behavior. She continued to make scientific breakthroughs as an independent investigator at the Institute for Cancer Research
Institute for Cancer Research
Institute for Cancer Research can refer to at least two separate organizations:* American Institute for Cancer Research, located in Washington, DC...
in Philadelphia and as an adjunct associate professor of Human Genetics at University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
.
Tilghman went to Princeton University in 1986 as the Howard A. Prior Professor of the Life Sciences. Two years later, she also joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an investigator. She was a leader in the use of mice
Genetically modified organism
A genetically modified organism or genetically engineered organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one...
to understand the behavior of genes by researching the effect of gene insertion in embryonic cells.
In 1998, she took on additional responsibilities as the founding director of Princeton's multi-disciplinary Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, while continuing to study how male and female genomes are packaged and the consequences of the differences for regulating embryo growth.
Presidency
Tilghman succeeded Harold ShapiroHarold Shapiro
Harold Shapiro is the name of:* Harold S. Shapiro , mathematician* Harold Tafler Shapiro , economist and former president of Princeton University and of the University of Michigan-See also:* Harold Shapero , composer...
and became the 19th President of Princeton University in 2001. She was elected Princeton's first woman president on May 5, 2001, and assumed office on June 15, 2001. Under her administration, the University built a sixth residential college, named in honor of alumna Meg Whitman
Meg Whitman
Margaret Cushing "Meg" Whitman is an American business executive. She is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard. A native of Long Island, New York, she is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School...
, to accommodate an 11 percent expansion of the undergraduate student body (an increase of some 500 students), as recommended by a special committee of the Board of Trustees chaired by Paul M. Wythes.
The establishment of Whitman College
Whitman College, Princeton University
Whitman College is one of the six residential colleges at Princeton University, New Jersey, United States. The college is named after Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, following her $30 million donation to build the college. The structure was designed by architect Demetri Porphyrios...
, together with the reconstruction of Butler College, accompanied a significant reconfiguration of Princeton’s residential college system, which now incorporates upperclassmen as well as freshmen and sophomores, providing new residential options and increasing opportunities for social interaction across the student body. In addition, an effort has been made to strengthen the relationship between the university and Princeton’s independent eating clubs, where most upperclassmen take their meals, with the goal of enhancing the undergraduate experience of all students.
Tilghman has presided over a number of academic initiatives, including the creation of a Center for African American Studies, the Lewis Center for the Arts (after alumnus Peter B. Lewis), the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment (after alumnus Gerhard R. Andlinger). Along with the renewal of the Department of Chemistry, these steps have both capitalized on Princeton’s existing strengths and broken new ground, ensuring that the university will, in Tilghman’s words, continue “to make the world a better place through the power of the mind and the imagination.”
More broadly, Tilghman’s presidency has placed an emphasis on increasing the diversity of Princeton’s faculty and students; widening access to the university through improvements to its generous financial aid program and the elimination of admission through “early decision”; fostering a multidisciplinary approach to teaching and research; and strengthening the university’s international perspective through a wide range of initiatives – from the Global Scholars Program, which brings international scholars to campus on a recurring basis, to the Bridge Year Program, which gives incoming freshmen an opportunity to defer their studies for a year in order to devote themselves to public service overseas.
For Tilghman, Princeton has two essential missions. “One is to ensure that our doors are open as wide as possible to every talented student in the world who is capable of doing the hard work we ask of them. And that means maintaining our commitment to financial aid, which is the tool – the critical tool – to get those students to Princeton. And the second thing is that we must address the most critical issues, and push back the frontiers of knowledge, and not just in science and technology, but in social policy, and in public policy, and in understanding the nature of the human condition.”
Although President Tilghman has been accused of favoring women in her hiring practices, in fact, most of her appointees have been men.
The women she has hired to senior positions include Amy Gutmann
Amy Gutmann
Amy Gutmann is the eighth President of the University of Pennsylvania and the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Communications, and Philosophy...
(who was chosen as the President of the University of Pennsylvania in early 2004) as Provost, the second-most-powerful administrative position in the University, Anne-Marie Slaughter
Anne-Marie Slaughter
Anne-Marie Slaughter was the Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department from January 2009 until February 2011. She is the Bert G...
as Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school has granted undergraduate A.B. degrees since 1930 and graduate degrees since 1948...
as well as her successor Christina Paxson, Maria Klawe
Maria Klawe
Maria M. Klawe is a computer scientist and the fifth president of Harvey Mudd College . Although born in Toronto in 1951, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009. She was previously Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University.-Biography:Klawe was born in...
as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (chosen as the President of Harvey Mudd College
Harvey Mudd College
Harvey Mudd College is a private residential liberal arts college of science, engineering, and mathematics, located in Claremont, California. It is one of the institutions of the contiguous Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds....
in 2006), and Janet Lavin Rapelye as the Dean of Admission. Prominent men she has appointed include Charles Kalmbach as the Senior Vice President for Administration, the highest non-academic administrative post, David P. Dobkin
David P. Dobkin
David Paul Dobkin is the Dean of the Faculty and Phillip Y. Goldman '86 Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University.Dobkin was born February 29, 1948, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After receiving a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970, he moved to Harvard University...
as Dean of the Faculty, Gutmann's replacement Christopher L. Eisgruber, and Klawe's replacement H. Vincent Poor.
Tilghman also signed on to the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
-wide Seven-week athletic moratorium, in which intercollegiate athletes were enjoined from taking part in supervised practices and other obligatory athletic activities for seven weeks during the academic year in order to encourage them to participate in other activities. Supporters of the proposal pointed to studies by former Princeton president William G. Bowen
William G. Bowen
William G. Bowen is President Emeritus of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation where he served as President from 1988 to 2006. He was the president of Princeton University from 1972 to 1988....
, whose book The Game of Life described the widespread academic underperformance of college athletes. Detractors claimed that it represented an encroachment on students' freedom to use their time as they saw fit.
While Tilghman has disquieted some alumni by promoting a more diverse university community, establishing a single admission process, and broadening the range of residential and dining options available to students, she has also found strong support for these actions and the vision that underpins them.
Societies and awards
Tilghman is a member of the American Philosophical SocietyAmerican Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
, the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, the Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
and the Royal Society of London. She was a founding member of the International Mammalian Genome Society
International Mammalian Genome Society
The International Mammalian Genome Society is a professional scientific organization that promotes and coordinates the genetic and genomic study of mammals...
. She serves as a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States...
and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is a public research university located in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.KAUST was founded in 2009 and focuses exclusively on graduate education and research, using English as the official language of instruction...
. From 1993 through 2000, Tilghman chaired Princeton’s Council on Science and Technology, which encourages teaching science and technology to students outside the sciences. In 1996, she received Princeton’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Nineteen Princeton graduating classes, from 1941 to 2005, have made President Tilghman an honorary member.
Awards
- L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in ScienceL'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in ScienceThe L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science aims to improve the position of women in science by recognizing outstanding women researchers who have contributed to scientific progress...
(2002) - Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Developmental Biology (2003)
- Genetics Society of AmericaGenetics Society of AmericaThe Genetics Society of America is a scholarly membership society of more than 4000 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931...
Medal (2007) - Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research from Friends of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2010)
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Outside activities
Tilghman has served as a member of the board of directors of GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
since October 2005. As compensation for joining the board, she received 6,000 shares of stock that by 2005 were worth in excess of her Princeton compensation package that by 2003 had reached $533,057.
She also serves on the Queen's Chemistry Innovation Council
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
in order to help the development of the Chemistry program at Queen's.
Quotes
"What made it truly thrilling was that the genes were organized in a way that was totally unexpected. So nature took us by surprise.""There are 25 years of good social science that demonstrate the many cultural practices that act collectively to discourage women from entering and continuing careers in science and engineering. The research is overwhelming, and it is there for anybody to see. On the other hand, the data that would suggest there are innate differences in the abilities of men and women to succeed in the natural sciences are nonexistent."
Key publications
- Tilghman, Shirley (1999) The Sins of the Fathers and Mothers: Genomic Imprinting in Mammalian Development. Cell Volume 96, Issue 2
- Tilghman, Shirley, et al. (1994) The Funding of Young Investigators in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. ISBN 0309050774
- Tilghman, Shirley and National Research Council Committee on Dimensions, Causes, and Implications of Recent Trends in the Careers of Life Scientists (1998) Trends in the Careers of Life Scientists. Molecular Biology of the Cell Vol. 9, 3007–3015
- Tilghman, Shirley (2005) Recruiting, Retaining and Advancing Women Scientists in Academia. Address delivered March 24 at Columbia University.