Gladstone’s Deepak Srivastava Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—April 20, 2010—Deepak Srivastava, MD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and Professor of Pediatrics and Biochemistry at UCSF, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Srivastava joins former Gladstone president Robert W. Mahley as a member of the Academy. Established 230 years ago by John Adams and other founding fathers, the Academy is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and a center for independent policy research.

This year, 229 leaders in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, arts, business, and public affairs were elected to the Academy. Members of this year’s class include UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, director Francis Ford Coppola, actor Denzel Washington and comedian Steve Martin. Srivastava was honored for his work in understanding the causes of congenital heart disease and his leadership in Gladstone’s stem cell research program.

“In addition to his leading-edge research, Dr. Srivastava has been very involved in the broader societal issues that impact the progress of science,” said Gladstone president R. Sanders Williams, MD, PhD. “He will undoubtedly be a valuable contributor to the Academy.”

The Academy of Arts and Sciences brings together scholars and practitioners from many disciplines and professions, which gives it a unique capacity to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary, long-term policy research. Current projects focus on science and technology, global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture, and education.

“We are pleased to welcome these distinguished individuals into the Academy,” said Leslie Berlowitz, Chief Executive Officer and William T. Golden Chair. “We look forward to drawing on their knowledge and expertise to provide practical policy solutions to the pressing issues of the day.”

“The men and women we elect today are true pathbreakers who have made unique contributions to their fields, and to the world,” said Academy Chair Louis W. Cabot. “The Academy honors them and their work, and they, in turn, honor us.”

The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 9, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Since its founding by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other scholar-patriots, the Academy has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the twentieth. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

About the Gladstone Institutes
The J. David Gladstone Institutes, an independent, nonprofit biomedical research organization, affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, is dedicated to the health and welfare of humankind through research into the causes and prevention of some of the world’s most devastating diseases. Gladstone is comprised of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease. More information can be found at www.gladstone.ucsf.edu.