Bloom, a researcher for almost 40 years, is chairman of the Department of Neuropharmacology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. They will serve four-year terms on the board. In his distinguished career, Bloom has served as director of the Arthur V. Davis Center for Behavioral Neurobiology at The Salk Institute in San Diego, California. At the National Institutes of Mental Health in Washington, D.C., he held the positions of acting director of the Division of Special Mental Health Research Programs and chief of the Laboratory of Neuropharmacology. Prior to that he was a professor at Yale University's School of Medicine.
Bloom is hailed as one of the major architects of modern neuroscience.
He was one of the first neurobiologists to utilize modern molecular biological techniques in a search for molecules of importance in brain function and the characterization of brain-specific genes. Bloom is credited with a series of discoveries that have profoundly affected our understanding of such diseases as depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism and dementia associated with HIV infection. Bloom also enhanced Science's coverage of international research. Bloom has published prolifically in the field of neuropharmacology and brain research. Bloom and the new board members will take office at the close of the AAAS annual meeting, February 20, 2001.