President's Public Service Awards

University of Massachusetts > Faculty > PPSA 2007 Doxsey

Stephen J. Doxsey

Professor of Molecular Medicine

UMass Medical School

Stephen J. Doxsey is co-founder of the program UMass Laboratories for Worcester Area High Schools which brings high school students to the UMass Medical School campus for hands-on research experiences in state-of-the-art laboratories.  Faculty members participating in this program encourage high school students to consider careers in the sciences.

The high school science labs were launched seven years ago by Doxsey and North High School Department of Science administrators. Each participating faculty member teaches one lab in his or her area of expertise during the year-long course, with students making four visits to UMass Medical School. The program allows students to use sophisticated equipment that their high schools cannot provide and to complete some of their required course materials for Advanced Placement Biology.

This summer, Doxsey was awarded a $1.5 million Keck Medical Research Grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation. The Keck Foundation supports the work of leading researchers to lay the groundwork for breakthrough discoveries.  The Medical Research Grant will support Doxsey's project, "A New Paradigm for Longevity," which examines whether aging may be a curable disease of the stem cells rather than an inevitable process.