Provost named to National Academies of Science council

By Jonathan Sherwood

Ralph Kuncl

Ralph Kuncl, provost and executive vice president of the University, has been named to the National Academies of Science’s Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR), a platform for leaders in government, academia, and business to discuss scientific issues of national importance.

Kuncl joins a prestigious council that includes three presidents of the National Academies, several leaders in various national industries, and four other academic leaders, all of whom are university presidents.

Some of the issues Kuncl and his colleagues expect to explore during his three-year appointment to the council are the challenges of turning academic research into commercial enterprises, the training of the nation’s scientific workforce, and the effects of globalization on U.S. research.

Created in 1985, the GUIRR provides a forum for top government, university, and industry leaders to understand each other’s needs and perspectives and to define and explore critical issues related to those needs. In addition, the roundtable is charged with framing the next critical questions stemming from its debates and carrying the awareness of the issues and their possible impacts to the public.

Kuncl, a national leader in the neurosciences, was a professor of neurology, pathology, and cellular and molecular medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine from 1983–2002. While there, his lab discovered the glutamate transporter defect in the disease commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The discovery helped lead to the first effective treatment for the disease.

Kuncl is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles and earned his Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.