Blanton S. Tolbert is HHMI’s Inaugural Vice President of Science Leadership and Culture. He earned a BS in chemistry at the University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. in biophysics and structural biology at the University of Rochester. He was an HHMI postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, with HHMI Investigator Michael Summers. Prior to joining HHMI, he served as the inaugural Vice Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive excellence for the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and as the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center’s first Associate Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In 2016, he received the inaugural Morton L. Mandel Award for Excellence in Research and Service from the CWRU chemistry department. In 2023, he was recognized by the International Society for Antiviral Research with the Diversity in Science and Excellence Award. As of 1 July 2023, Tolbert became a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to this position, he was the Rudolph and Susan Rense Professor of Chemistry at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). The research in his group focuses on the biochemical mechanisms by which RNA viruses replicate within the cellular environment.
