May 9, 2025
East Hartford, CT — Thomas Pollard, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Professor Emeritus of Cell Biology and of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and Director of Programs in Physics Engineering and Biology, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale School of Medicine, has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Connecticut Medal of Science. Dr. Pollard is recognized as a pioneer of cell biology who has discovered and characterized proteins that produce forces for cellular movements.
His groundbreaking career has been devoted to understanding cell motility through the study of actin filaments and myosin motors through the framework of protein polymers that cells make to define their overall shape, their internal structure, and their motions. The medal-bestowing ceremony will be shared with members and guests at CASE’s 50th Annual Dinner, to be held May 28, 2025, at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
Dr. Pollard has been devoted to understanding cell motility driven by actin filaments and myosin motors of the “cytoskeleton,” the framework of protein polymers that cells make to define their overall shape, their internal structure, and power their motions. He provided the first direct link, combining biophysics, biochemistry, quantitative microscopy, and mathematical modeling, to explain how assembly of branched actin filaments produce forces for cellular movements and interactions of myosin motors and actin filaments divide cells during cytokinesis. He has also been a tireless advocate for the increase in funding and awareness for science at both the state and national level, serving as an advisor for several national specific advisory panels and government agencies.
“Connecticut is home to some of the nation’s leading scientists who are pushing the envelope and creating revolutionary discoveries that are having a global impact,” Governor Ned Lamont said. “The scientific community in Connecticut has a passion for innovation that our state celebrates and encourages. I congratulate Dr. Pollard on receiving Connecticut’s highest honor for scientific achievement. Most importantly, his work is revolutionizing advancements that are being used to develop the breakthroughs that will shape medicine and medical treatments for decades to come.”
Dr. Pollard earned a BA in Chemistry from Pomona College, followed by his M.D. in Medicine from Harvard Medical School. In 2006, he was awarded a Sterling Professorship, the highest academic honor professors receive at Yale University. From 2018 to 2021, Pollard was director of the Institute for Biological, Physical and Engineering Sciences. After retiring from Yale, Pollard was appointed as Visiting Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley.
He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of the United States, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Microbiology, Biophysical Society, Institute of Medicine, and the American Society for Cell Biology, and CASE. Pollard has received multiple prestigious awards over the course of his career, including the Rosenstiel Award, the Public Service Award from the Biophysical Society, the E.B. Wilson Medal, Gairdner International Award in Biomedical Sciences, and the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing, to name a few. For more, see Dr. Pollard’s Yale profile.
Dr. Pollard and his wife Patty Pollard, past president of the Yale University Women’s Organization and the Maryland League of Women Voters and cofounder of the Maryland Education Coalition, reside in Berkeley, CA. Their children, Katie and Dan, are both professors in the biological sciences.
The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering was chartered by the General Assembly in 1976 to provide expert guidance on science and technology to the people and to the state of Connecticut, and to promote the application of science and technology to human welfare and economic well-being.