Melvin I. Simon

Melvin I. Simon (b. 1937)  is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[1] A research scientist who has made significant contributions into the development of biological sciences, he was a member of the laboratory team that was first to illustrate how a rotary motor drives bacterial flagella;[2] and his group created the Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) vector along with many of the first libraries providing the basic material for the Human Genome Project.   

Some of the awards Simon has received include: the 1978 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship;[3] the 1991 Selman Waxman award from the National Academy of Sciences[4] and the 1999 BSF Award (together with Dr. Sima Lev) on ‘The Role of the Human Homologues of rdgB in Retinal Degeneration.'[5] In recognition of his contributions, the Melvin Simon Chair in Philanthropy at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI was established in 2018.[6]

Simon was a co-founder of the Agouron Institute in 1978,[7] where he was Board Chair. He was a founder and member of the Board of Diversa (Verenium) Corporation.[8] Other boards he has participated in include: the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,[9] the Hutchinson Institute,[10] the American Society of Microbiology,[11] the National Science Foundation,[12] the National Institutes of Health,[13] and the Department of Energy.[14] He was also the co-Chair of the Alliance for Cell Signaling between 1999-2009.[15] Between 1995 and 2000 he served as Chairman of the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology.