Jan Vijg

Combining a passion for history and for science, Netherlands-born Jan Vijg earned his PhD in biology at the University of Leiden and built a career as a molecular geneticist, witnessing the revolution in genetics, from recombinant DNA technology to the human genome project of the 1990s. His own research program is focused on the hypothesis that aging is caused by random changes in the genome of our somatic cells.Dr. Vijg moved to the US in 1993 to become Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He has published over 200 scientific articles and two books. His studies put him at the forefront of the current scientific advances that inspire so many authors to write about the upcoming era of immortality. His position as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York (since July 2008) is also very focused on technology development. An important part of his responsibilities is to translate new discoveries, made by the faculty, into clinical applications. Therefore, he has a great professional interest in the implementation of new technology in society; thus, he writes as a scientist who wants to see his inventions applied in society and is frustrated by the current climate that is no longer conducive to the quick application of novel technology, not even if it is obviously benign. His sympathy goes to those who are optimistic about our technological future and he provides extensive space for their arguments.