Dorothy May Skinner's Career
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Pg 10e L3
Dr Dorothy Skinner majored in Biology and Chemistry. Although only 22 years old, she was
appointed assistant Admissions Director for Jackson College but since there was no effective
Director she was responsible for admitting two classes to the college. In 1954 she entered
Harvard graduate school in Biology, receiving her PHD in 1959. For several years she did
postdoctoral work in several major biochemistry labs, including a six month stint with James
Watson (of Watson and Crick fame). She was hired into the Department of Physiology and
Biophysics at N.Y.U. School of Medicine where she and John met. She and John were married at
the Church of the Incarnation in New York and she retained her maiden name.
She has always worked with Crustacea, notably but not exclusively land crabs. Her interests
have been in their molecular biology, characterizing their complex DNA, and in the controls
on their growth and development.
In January 1966 John took a sabbatical at the Biology Division of the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory and she took a leave of absence to go with him. She and John took permanent
positions there and stayed in until June 1999.
She has held adjunct professorships at the University of Tennessee and East Tennessee State
University. She has received numerous awards of recognition, including Outstanding Alumna of
Tufts University, Career Recognition Award from The Crustacean Society, Achievement Award from
Women in Cell Biology, and others.
While in graduate school she took and later assisted in summer courses in Invertebrate Zoology
at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, and in the summer of 1971 she was again on
the teaching staff in that course. She has been on the Council and/or an officer in the
American Society for Cell Biology, the Society of General Physiologists, and the Crustacean
Society. She was appointed a National Lecturer for the Society of Sigma Xi (honorary
scientific society). She has served on review panels of the National Institutes of Health and
the National Science Foundation. She is currently on the Council of the Association for
Women in Science.
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