NIH 1998 Almanac/The Organization/NIGMS/
National Institute of General Medical Sciences : Biographical Sketch of NIGMS Director
Marvin Cassman, Ph.D.
Dr. Cassman was named NIGMS director on August
18, 1996. Prior to his appointment as permanent director, he had served the institute as
deputy director since 1989 and as acting director since 1993.
His other positions within the institute included
director, Biophysics and Physiological Sciences Program Branch (1985-1989) and chief,
molecular basis of disease section of the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Disease Program
Branch (1978-1984). He has also worked in the Office of Science and Technology Policy,
Executive Office of the President, as a senior policy analyst.
After receiving undergraduate degrees from the
University of Chicago, Dr. Cassman earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1965 at the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr.
Howard Schachman at the University of California, Berkeley, he joined the faculty of the
University of California, Santa Barbara. He came to NIGMS in 1975 as a health scientist
administrator in the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Disease Program Branch.
He has received many honors and awards for his
work at NIGMS, including the 1991 Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award and the
1983 NIH Director’s Award.
Directors of NIGMS
