Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

Pfizer CD Chair Renamed

LAUBACH ADDED
Pfizer CD Chair Renamed

The Pfizer Career Development Chair, which Pfizer Inc. has endowed since 
1987, has been renamed the Pfizer IncÑGerald D. Laubach Career 
Development Chair. 

The renaming is a tribute to Dr. Laubach as he closes his 40-year career 
at Pfizer where he has been a board member since 1968. He was named 
president of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in 1969 and president of Pfizer in 
1972.

Dr. Laubach, who received his doctorate in organic chemistry from MIT in 
1950, the year he joined Pfizer, retired February 1.

The Pfizer IncÑGerald D. Laubach Career Development Chair provides an 
opportunity to identify and support promising MIT faculty members as 
they develop their careers in biology and chemistry. Associate Professor 
Brent H. Cochran of the Department of Biology and the Center for Cancer 
Research was named the first holder of the professorship in 1988.

President Charles M. Vest said: "It is a pleasure to join with Pfizer in 
honoring Dr. Laubach. . .  We have appreciated his dedicated service on 
our visiting committees for many years and count him among our most 
distinguished alumni. It is fitting that through this chair, Dr. Laubach 
and Pfizer will provide lasting encouragement to future scientists in 
chemistry and biology."

Pfizer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edmund T. Pratt, Jr., 
speaking on behalf of the research-based healthcare company, said, "This 
tribute to Dr. Laubach is intended to acknowledge the extraordinary 
impact he has had on Pfizer during his illustrious 40-year career with 
the company. Dr. Laubach is a distinguished scientist and an outstanding 
executive whose contributions in research and business management have 
been monumental. We are pleased to have this unique opportunity to 
recognize his remarkable achievements."

Dr. Laubach is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National 
Academy of Sciences, the Corporation Committee for Sponsored Research of 
MIT, the Visiting Committee of the Department of Biochemistry and 
Molecular Biology of Harvard University and the Visiting Committee of 
the Columbia University School of Nursing.

He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1990 and 
is also a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of 
Sciences, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, the American Institute of Chemists, the American Chemical 
Society, the American Management Association, the Society of Chemical 
Industry and the Chemists Club.