Other Emerging Leaders

Many other scientists committed a major part of their work to the study and understanding of macromolecules. In this chapter, brief surveys of these emerging leaders are given. 

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Most successful leaders of systems research, in whatever country, have emerged after achieving distinction in their own specialisms because they wish to solve problems of practical importance and recognise that their discipline has a contribution to make. It is a small step for them to recognise that this also applies to many other disciplines as well. 

One of the leaders of the Love Canal protest was a housewife named Lois Gibbs, who subsequently moved to northern Virginia to establish the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste (since renamed the Center for Health, Environment and Justice), to advise other communities afflicted by toxic wastes. Over the next decade, the dimensions of the chemical waste problem began to emerge and thousands of local groups formed to advocate for the cleanup of contaminated local lands. This toxics movement eventually encompassed many thousands of local groups in all 50 states. 

The boards of directors of these companies were examined in order to determine patterns of commonality in the leadership of sustainability initiatives. A number of findings emerged that may prove valuable to the leaders of other chemical companies who are looking for ways to employ the tenets of sustainable development in their corporate governance strategy. 

Continuing in these directions, the December 2005 issue of The Atlantic lists awardees in a special section on Service to America Medals. Under Science and Environment, Subhashree Madhavan of the National Institutes of Health received the award. Mentioning that cancer now surpasses heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States for persons under age 85, the citation notes that Madhavan is the leader of a team called Rembrandt, the Repository for Molecular Brain Neoplastic Data. It is described as the fullest and most analytically powerful database on brain tumors and how they behave. Expectedly, other databases will emerge for other cancer types. Will this be expanded to treatments and cures (i.e., remissions) and CAM some day. 

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