Dr. Hirsh is a 1968 alumnus of Rockefeller University and his career has included prestigious appointments at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England; the University of Colorado and the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. Previous to his current position at Columbia, Dr. Hirsh served as dean for research and professor and chair of the department of biochemistry and molecular biophysics. In 1980, he co-founded Synergen, a biotechnology company that developed proteins as therapeutics. Dr. Hirsh was elected to the Board of Rockefeller in 2001. He also serves as an advisor to Warburg Pincus and is on the boards of ZymoGenetics, Inc. and the Agouron Institute, a foundation devoted to supporting creative scientific research. He was elected to the Board in 2001.