Stephen DeFalco Joins MDS as COO; Lorah Perlee Named Director of Scientific Applications at Protedyne; Raymond Land Appointed VP and CFO of Orchid Biosciences; Mason Morfit Joins Board of Solexa; David Basiji Named CEO of Amnis; and Others

Stephen DeFalco has joined MDS as chief operating officer, the company said this week.

DeFalco will succeed John Rogers as president and chief executive officer of MDS. Rogers plans to retire by the end of 2005.

DeFalco is currently chairman and CEO of US Genomics. He has held senior administrative positions at PerkinElmer as well as senior management positions at United Technologies, McKinsey & Co., and IBM. DeFalco holds an MS in management from the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MS in computer engineering from SyracuseUniversity, and a BS in mechanical engineering from MIT.

Lorah Perlee has been named director of scientific applications at Protedyne, the company said this week.

Prior to joining the high-throughput solutions provider, Perlee held senior administrative and investigative positions at Molecular Staging, DiagXotics, and Lifecodes.

Raymond Land has been appointed chief financial officer and senior vice president of Orchid Biosciences, the company said this week.

Land had previously served as VP and CFO of Genencor International and held the same positions at West Pharmaceutical Services. He also held financial positions at Campbell Soup.

Land currently serves as a board member of Mountain View Pharmaceuticals. He holds a degree in accounting and finance from TempleUniversity.

Land will start at Orchid in June, replacing Michael Spicer, who resigned in December 2004.

G. Mason Morfit, a partner with ValueAct Capital, will join the board of Solexa, the Hayward, Calif.-based company said last week. Prior to joining ValueAct in 2000, Morfit worked in equity research for Credit Suisse First Boston. He holds a BA from PrincetonUniversity.

The US Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that Robert Kavlock will lead its new National Center for Computational Toxicology. Kavlock, a 27-year veteran of EPA, most recently served as director of the Reproductive Toxicology Division at EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory. He chaired the committee that developed the EPA's computational toxicology research program, which will now guide the center's activities.

EPA also appointed Jerry Blancato, a 20-year veteran of EPA, as NCCT deputy director.

The Universityof Michigan's Life Sciences Institute has hired several new faculty members, bringing the number of LSI faculty to 17 out of an expected total of 25-30 scientists. New recruits include Alexey Kondrashov, who joins LSI from the National Center for Biotechnology Information and will use computational systems to study evolutionary biology; and Noah Rosenberg, who is currently completing a postdoc in molecular and computational biology at the University of Southern California, and will specializes in computational analysis of population genetics and epidemiology.

Xenogen said last week that it has elected Kevin Hrusovsky to its board of directors. Hrusovsky will also join Xenogen's nominating and governance committee following its

Hrusovsky has been CEO of Caliper Life Sciences since it acquired Zymark in the summer of 2003. Prior to the acquisition, Hrusovsky held management positions at FMC Corporation and E.I. DuPont de Nemours, Xenogen said. He holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University, an MBA from OhioUniversity, and an extended MBA from HarvardUniversity.

David Basiji has been named CEO of Amnis, according to Genome Web Daily News' sister publication Cell-Based Assay News. Basiji was previously Amnis' chief technology officer. He replaces former CEO Jack Ball. Further details about Ball's departure were not available.

Michael Palfreyman has been named chief scientific and development advisor of Marc Pharmaceuticals, the company said last week.

Palfreyman will remain as head of development at EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, according to Marc. A co-founder of Psychiatric Genomics and NOVACE, Palfreyman previously held executive and scientific leadership positions at Scriptgen, Marion Merrell Dow and Beecham Pharmaceuticals.

Palfreyman holds PhD and DSc from the Universityof Nottingham.

Paul Gilman has been elected to the board of directors of JMAR Technologies, and will replace outgoing director and JMAR founder Jack Martinez, the company said last week.

Gilman is the founding director of the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies. He previously served as assistant administrator for the office of research and development, at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Gilman has also held positions at Celera Genomics, the National Research Council, and has 13 years experience working on the staff of the US Senate. Gilman holds an AB, MA, and PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from Johns Hopkins University.

J. Robert Hurley has been named vice president for human resources and corporate communications at Beckman Coulter, effective May 23, the company said this week. Hurley is presently corporate vice president for restructuring at Baxter International, where he has worked since 1980.

Nobel laureate Paul Berg, professor emeritus of cancer research at StanfordUniversity and director emeritus for the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine, will receive the Biotechnology Heritage award to be presented by the Chemical Heritage Foundation and the Biotechnology Industry Organization at BIO 2005 in Philadelphia, the organizations said last week. Berg, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger received the 1980 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing methods that make it possible to map the structure and function of DNA.

Akira Usui has been appointed as general manager of Perlegen Sciences Japan KK, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's new Japanese facility.

Usui has also been named vice president of Asia business development for Perlegen in the US. Usui previously held business development and licensing positions with Tanabe Seiyaku and Roche Pharmaceuticals.

Promoted? Changing jobs? GenomeWeb News wants to know. E-mail us at [email protected] to announce your move in PEOPLE, a weekly roundup of personnel changes in the genomics industry.