Dr. Leonard Freedman became chief science officer at Frederick National Laboratory in November 2018. Freedman joined Frederick National Laboratory after six years as founding president of the Global Biological Standards Institute.
As chief science officer, Freedman provides internal scientific leadership while building external partnerships and collaborations in science and technology development. His focus is on translating science into medicine to benefit patients suffering from AIDS, cancer, and emerging health challenges.
Freedman came to the Frederick National Laboratory after working in science policy at the Global Biological Standards Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing life science standards and best practices through policy initiatives, thought leadership, and education. Previously, he served as vice dean for research and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University.
As a vice president at Wyeth and executive director at Merck, Freedman also led discovery research efforts in the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, Freedman was a member and professor of cell biology and genetics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weil Cornell Medical College. There, Freedman and his laboratory made decisive discoveries in the area of nuclear hormone receptor structure and function.
Freedman has received numerous competitively funded National Institutes of Health grants, and was the recipient of major research honors, including the Boyer Award for Biomedical Research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health. He was also the recipient of the Ernst Oppenheimer Award from The Endocrine Society.
Widely published, Freedman has also served on influential scientific review panels and editorial boards. For 10 years, he was editor of Molecular and Cellular Biology. In addition, Freedman served on the board of directors of the American Type Culture Collection.
Freedman earned a B.A. degree in biology from Kalamazoo College and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the University of Rochester. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Keith Yamamoto at the University of California, San Francisco.
