biology

Thomas D. Pollard

Thomas D. Pollard is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thomas D. Pollard rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas Dean Pollard (born July 7, 1942) is a prominent educator, cell biologist and biophysicist whose research focuses on understanding cell motility through the study of actin filaments and myosin motors. He is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and a professor emeritus of cell biology and molecular biophysics & biochemistry at Yale University.

Key takeaways

Thomas D. Pollard belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thomas D. Pollard to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thomas D. Pollard from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thomas Dean Pollard (born July 7, 1942) is a prominent educator, cell biologist and biophysicist whose research focuses on understanding cell motility through the study of actin filaments and myosin motors. He is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and a professor emeritus of cell biology and molecular biophysics & biochemistry at Yale University. He was dean of Yale's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2010 to 2014, and president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies from 1996 to 2001.

Education He was educated at Pomona College, receiving a B.A. degree in 1964. He then attended Harvard Medical School, graduating cum laude in 1968. He then interned in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Career Following his internship, Pollard became a Staff Associate at the National Heart and Lung Institute. Soon after, he returned to Harvard, becoming an assistant professor of anatomy in 1972, and advancing to associate professor in 1975. In 1977, Pollard was named professor and director of the department of cell biology and anatomy at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where his laboratory discovered and characterized several important cellular proteins. In 1996, he left Hopkins to become the president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, where he also maintained a highly productive research unit in the structural biology laboratory. Additionally, Pollard served as an adjunct professor of biology, of bioengineering, and of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. In 2001, Pollard moved his laboratory to Yale, where he was appointed Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and professor of Cell Biology and of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry. From 2003 to 2010 he chaired the Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology. In 2010, President Richard Levin named Pollard dean of the graduate school of arts and sciences at Yale, where he served until 2014. After retiring from Yale in 2021, Pollard was appointed Visiting Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley. From 2018 to 2021, Pollard was director of Yale's Institute for Biological, Physical and Engineering Sciences. Pollard has been very active in promoting scientific education and federal funding of biomedical research primarily through two major societies, both of which he served as a past president: the American Society for Cell Biology and the Biophysical Society. Нe is an Editor of the journal Molecular Biology of the Cell published by the American Society for Cell Biology. Pollard is a Fellow of the:

American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1990) National Academy of Sciences of the United States (1992) American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993) American Academy of Microbiology (1997) Biophysical Society (1999) Institute of Medicine (1999) American Society for Cell Biology (2016) Pollard is a recipient of the:

Rosenstiel Award, Brandeis University (jointly with James Spudich in 1996) Public Service Award, Biophysical Society (1997) E.B. Wilson Medal, American Society for Cell Biology (2004) Gairdner International Award in Biomedical Sciences (2006). NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing (2015) Connecticut Medal of Science (2025) Along with co-authors William C. Earnshaw, PhD, FRSE; Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, PhD; and illustrator Graham Johnson, Pollard is the primary author of the textbook Cell Biology now in its fourth edition published by Elsevier (2023). Numerous publications, teaching and public service awards, scientists mentored, and editorial boards served-on exemplify Pollard's extensive contributions to the fields of education and cell biology.

Family Thomas Pollard is married to Patricia Snowden, past president of the Maryland League of Women's Voters and cofounder of the Maryland Education Coalition. They have two children. Katherine Snowden Pollard is director of the Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology, a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and investigator at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Daniel Avery Pollard is an associate professor in the biology department of Western Washington University.

References Pollard, T.D. (2019) Cell motility and cytokinesis: from mysteries to molecular mechanisms in five decades. Ann. Rev. Cell Devel. Biol. 35:1-28. PMID: 31394047.

External links Yale University, Pollard Laboratory The Gairdner Foundation, Thomas D. Pollard Thomas D. Pollard CV

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thomas D. Pollard

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thomas D. Pollard claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thomas D. Pollard before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thomas D. Pollard ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thomas D. Pollard

In research: Thomas D. Pollard appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thomas D. Pollard in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thomas D. Pollard is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, Harvard Medical School alumni, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thomas D. Pollard outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thomas D. Pollard in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thomas D. Pollard means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thomas D. Pollard out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thomas D. Pollard in simple terms?

Why does Thomas D. Pollard matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thomas D. Pollard?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thomas D. Pollard.