QnAs with Inder M. Verma

Abstract

On November 1, 2011, Inder Verma, a professor of molecular biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California and a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1997, took the reins of PNAS as Editor-in-Chief. Verma succeeds University of California, Berkeley cell biologist Randy Schekman as leader of the journal. Verma received a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and performed postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate David Baltimore. Long recognized in the scientific community for his work in cancer genetics and gene therapy, Verma was most recently honored with the 2008 Vilcek Foundation Prize, the 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Society of Gene Therapy, and the 2010 Specter Prize from Columbia University. He has served on the PNAS Editorial Board since 2001, an experience that he says will come in handy while he is at the journal’s helm. Verma discusses his plans for PNAS. Inder M. Verma. > PNAS:How did you react to the news that you had been chosen as Editor-in-Chief? > Verma:Part of my reaction was triggered by the prestige of becoming the leader of a highly respected journal, whose past editors-in-chief have been among the …