Moonwalk Team

Edward Scolnick is a core member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and chief scientist emeritus of Broad’s Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research.

Scolnick joined the institute in 2004 to spearhead a major research effort in psychiatric disease and in 2007 became the director of Broad’s Psychiatric Disease Program and founding director of the institute’s newly launched Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. Scolnick served as the Stanley Center’s director for five years, and currently serves as the center’s chief scientist. He also holds an academic appointment at MIT as a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Biology.

From 1982 to 2003, Scolnick served as president of Merck Research Laboratories; executive vice president for science and technology at Merck & Co., Inc.; executive director and vice president in the department of virus and cell biology and senior vice president for basic research at Merck Research Laboratories.

Prior to joining Merck, he worked at the National Cancer Institute where he demonstrated the cellular origin of sarcoma virus oncogenes in mammals and defined specific genes that cause human cancer. He also worked at the National Heart Institute where his work defined the stop signals in the genetic code and the biochemical mechanism that produces the stops.

Scolnick is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. Among his many other academic honors, he was selected as Regents’ Lecturer, University of California at Berkeley, and as Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of ‘56 University Professor at Cornell University. He was also appointed to the Board of Visitors at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

He served on the Board of Directors of Merck & Co., Inc. from 1997 to 2002; the Board of Councilors for the National Institute of Mental Health from 1998 to 2002; and the FDA Science Board from 2000 to 2002. He currently is a consultant for Clarus Ventures.

Scolnick holds an A.B. from Harvard College and an M.D. from Harvard University Medical School.