Polymath Scientist Varmus Leaving Memorial Sloan-Kettering

While at Sloan-Kettering, he oversaw both expansion and contraction. Like many other research centers, Sloan-Kettering constructed new research facilities and a graduate school. The cancer center’s endowment also fell with the stock market plunge, although according to a statement from Sloan-Kettering, Varmus oversaw a fund-raising effort that recently topped $2 billion.

Varmus’s stock rose further during the 2008 presidential race. A backer of now-President Barack Obama, he advised the candidate on scientific issues. In January, Obama picked Varmus to co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He also recently published The Art and Politics of Science, a memoir that urges stronger links between science and the political realm.