Hopi Hoekstra Joins Simons Foundation Board of Trustees
Pioneering evolutionary biologist Danielle “Hopi” Hoekstra has joined the Simons Foundation’s board of trustees. As a board member, she will provide strategic vision, oversight and stewardship to the foundation in support of its mission to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences.
Hoekstra is the Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and a professor in organismic and molecular biology at Harvard University. She previously served as the curator of mammals at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. Her research focuses on the genetic basis of adaptation — from morphology to behavior — in vertebrates, including wild mice.
Hoekstra holds a B.A. in integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Before stepping into her role as dean at Harvard, she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. She previously served on the advisory board of Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation.
Hoekstra joins fellow Simons Foundation trustees Cori Bargmann, a neurobiologist and geneticist; physician-scientist Emery Brown; mathematician and physicist Ingrid Daubechies; mathematical physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf; mathematician David Eisenbud; investor and business leader Bill Ford; organizational advisor and investment professional Andrew Golden; mathematician Jill Pipher; computer scientist William H. Press; investor and philanthropist Nat Simons; financial executive Ellen Taus; molecular biologist and vice chair Shirley M. Tilghman; and co-founder and chair Marilyn H. Simons.
The Simons Foundation also expresses its heartfelt thanks to physicist and emeritus trustee Peter Littlewood, who recently retired from the board of trustees following nine years of invaluable leadership, insight and commitment to the foundation’s mission.
