Office of Public Information Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 (212) 854-5573
P. Roy Vagelos, M.D., former chairman and chief executive officer of Merck & Co., Inc., will receive the Pupin Medal December 5 from Columbia University, the School of Engineering and Applied Science and its Alumni Association.
Dr. Vagelos, who received his M.D. from Columbia in 1954, was cited by the Pupin committee "for his leadership in the pharmaceutical industry; for his many contributions to biological science and pharmaceutical research; for his role in helping to discover and produce medicines that extend and enhance life; for his tireless efforts to promote global health as a public service; and for his outstanding work as a teacher." Since January of this year, he has served as chairman of the board of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
As a young researcher at the federal government's National Heart Institute, and later at Washington University, he made important contributions to understanding, at the molecular level, how the human body manufactures fats.
At Merck, he served as chief executive officer from 1985 to 1994 and as chairman of the board from 1986 to 1994. During his tenure, the corporation expanded its philanthropic efforts, responding to medical needs and disaster relief around the world with more than $150 million in gifts and product donations. Since 1988, Merck has donated Mectizan, a once-a-year antiparasitic medication developed by Merck scientists, to 34 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America to help prevent river blindness. The company has said it will provide the drug without charge as long as necessary. Columbia awarded the Lawrence A. Wien Prize in Corporate Social Responsibility to Merck in 1993.
Born in Westfield, N.J., he received the A.B. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. At Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, he was named to Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical honor society. After his internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, from 1954 to 1956, he joined the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., first as senior surgeon and then as head of the Section of Comparative Biology in the Laboratory of Biochemistry, at NIH's National Heart Institute. It was there that he completed his significant early research.
At the age of 37, he was appointed chairman of the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, a notable achievement for one so young. From 1973 to 1975, he also served as the university's Director of the Division of Biology and Biomedical Science.
Dr. Vagelos joined Merck as senior vice president of research in 1975, and became president of its research division the following year. In 1982, he was appointed senior vice president of the corporation with responsibility for strategic planning. He continued to hold both positions until 1984, when he was elected executive vice president.
The author of more than 100 scientific papers, Dr. Vagelos is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He received an honorary Doctor of Science from Columbia in 1990, and has received numerous honorary degrees from universities across the country. He accepted the post of chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania in 1994, having served as a trustee since 1988.
Dr. Vagelos will receive the Pupin Medal at a reception beginning at 4 P.M. in the Dag Hammarskjold Lounge on the sixth floor of the International Affairs Building, 420 West 118th Street.
The Pupin Medal was created by the Columbia Engineering School Alumni Association in 1958, the centennial year of the birth of Michael I. Pupin (1858-1935), physicist, inventor and professor of electro-mechanics at Columbia from 1901 to 1931. Among his many inventions is the Pupin coil, which greatly lengthened the range of telephone communications. Previous recipients of the Pupin include Rear Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, William James McGill, I.I. Rabi and Chien-Shiung Wu.
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