Lee Makowski Selected as Chair of BioE
BioE Professor Lee Makowski has been appointed as the inaugural Chair of Bioengineering. Since becoming Interim Chair of the Bioengineering Department in 2014, Lee has provided extraordinary leadership in the development of the undergraduate and M.S. curricula, in the hiring of new faculty, and in creating the organizational structure for the department’s operations.
Clearly, Lee brings an extensive history of academic and research accomplishment, and leadership to the position. Lee received his B.S. in Physics at Brown University, and his Masters and Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering. After a postdoctoral research appointment at Brandeis University in Structural Biology, he joined the faculty of the College of Physician and Surgeons at Columbia University in the Biochemistry Department. He then moved to Boston University as Professor of Physics and later accepted a position as Director of the Institute of Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University. There, he built a new program in Structural Biology that continues to flourish. In 1998, he joined the National Science Foundation, serving as a Program Director first in the Biology Directorate and then in the Division of Materials Science. From 2000 until 2010 he was at Argonne National Laboratory, first as Biosciences Division Director and then as Senior Scientist. Under his leadership the Division became a global leader in protein crystallography. In 2010 he joined Northeastern, jointly appointed in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chemistry and Chemical Biology.
Lee has been Principal Investigator on grants from the NIH (including a prestigious Eureka award), NSF, DOE, the Lucile P. Markey Charitable Trust and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. He has served as a member of the Biophysical Society’s Executive Council and Annual Meeting Program Chair, sits on the advisory committee of several synchrotron x-ray facilities, and is on the external advisory committee of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source. Lee is author/co-author of over 100 scientific research papers and review articles on the structure and assembly of macromolecular complexes and innovative use of x-rays, neutrons and electrons for the analysis of macromolecular systems.
We are fortunate to have such an accomplished researcher and scholar, academic leader and proven administrator to lead this exciting new venture for our college and university. Please join me in congratulating Lee on this appointment, and sincerely thanking the Search Committee consisting of Akram Alshawabkeh, Anand Asthagari (Chair), Erin Cram, Miriam Leeser, Mark Niedre, Jeff Ruberti, Sandra Sheffelbine (faculty members), Alex Colville (undergraduatre student) and David Walsh (graduate student) for their thoughtful, dedicated and persistent work which led to this outstanding outcome.