Professor Lindquist is a member, and former Director, of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where she guided it through the formation of the neighboring Broad Institute. She is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She received her PhD in Biology from Harvard in 1976 and was a postdoctoral fellow of the American Cancer Society. She was named the Albert D. Lasker Professor of Medical Sciences in 1999 at the University of Chicago. Professor Lindquist was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997 and the Institute of Medicine in 2006. Her honors also include the Dickson Prize in Medicine, the Sigma Xi William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement, designation by Scientific American as one of the top 50 leaders in business, policy, and research for 2006, and the Centennial Medal of the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Lindquist has mentored many highly successful young scientists and has been particularly active in her efforts to support talented young women scientists.