Robert Elliot Pollack (born September 2, 1940) is an American academic, administrator, biologist, and philosopher, who served as a long-time Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University.
Born in Brooklyn, Pollack earned a Bachelor of Arts in physics at Columbia College in 1961. He received a PhD in Biological Sciences from Brandeis University in 1966, and subsequently was a postdoctoral Fellow in Pathology at NYU Langone Health and the Weizmann Institute of Science. He was a senior staff scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for nearly a decade, before becoming Associate Professor of Microbiology at Stony Brook University in 1975. He returned to Columbia University as a Professor of Biological Sciences in 1978. He served as Dean of Columbia College from 1982 to 1989. He founded the Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR) in 1999, dedicated to exploring the intersection between faith and science. He served as Director of the Columbia University University Seminars from 2011 to 2019. He retired as Director of the CSSR, later renamed to the Research Cluster on Science and Subjectivity, in 2023.
Pollack has been credited as the father of reversion therapy, for his observation that cancer cells infected with different types of viruses could revert to non-oncogenic phenotypes. Subsequently, he published nearly one hundred scientific articles related to reversion. He later became a philosopher, examining his faith with a scientific lens, and, at the same time, reinterpreting science through faith. Pollack has authored over 200 scientific articles, seven books, and dozens of speeches, mostly delivered at Columbia University.
As the first Jewish Dean of an Ivy League institution, Pollack faced significant fundraising challenges, the AIDS epidemic, and conflict surrounding the issue of South African divestment. Being a scientific activist, he was the first to raise concerns about recombinant DNA technology, which eventually led to the Asilomar Conference. He also decried the corrupting relationship between scientific academia and industry and promoted scientific literacy among the general public. He set the stage for the inclusion of science in the Columbia College Core Curriculum. He ultimately converted the Research Cluster on Science and Subjectivity to an institution promoting undergraduates, encouraging a legacy of student-centered innovation. He has collaborated with and mentored many prominent scientists, including Nancy Hopkins and Bettie Steinberg.
Education and early life Robert Elliot Pollack was born on September 2, 1940, in Brooklyn, NY, growing up in the neighborhood of Seagate. His parents did not finish high school; his father ran a factory, manufacturing cardboard boxes. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School and studied at Columbia College, graduating in 1961 with a physics major. While at Columbia, he was a member of Jester Magazine and Columbia Daily Spectator. He took a freshman Core Course with Robert Belknap, whom he later succeeded as the Director of University Seminars at Columbia University. His favorite professors were Sidney Morgenbesser and Richard Neustadt, who taught philosophy and government, respectively. He worked as a laboratory assistant under the direction of Arno Penzias, then a graduate student in the lab of Charles H. Townes. Upon graduation, Pollack received a New York State Regents Teaching Fellowship to pursue graduate work at Brandeis University, examining differential expression of leucine transfer RNA in different strains of Escherichia coli following T2 or T4 virus infection.
Research In 1968, while working for Howard Green, Pollack published the first demonstration of reversion, a phenomenon whereby certain cancer cells demonstrated decreased growth and increased contact inhibition, thereafter being considered as reverted to a more normal non-oncogenic phenotype. Reversion was later suggested as a potential treatment for cancer. Pollack's work sparked a novel subfield of oncogenic research, elucidating the distinct mechanisms directing cell reversion.
Academic career Microbiologist Graduating with a PhD in Biology from Brandeis University in 1966, he spent sixteen years as a research scientist, completing postdoctoral work at both N.Y.U. Medical Center and the Weizmann Institute in Israel. He thereafter served as a senior scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from 1971 to 1975, became an Associate Professor of Biology at Stonybrook University from 1975 to 1978, and finally headed his own laboratory as a full Professor of Biology at Columbia University from 1978 to 1994.
Dean of Columbia College Pollack served as Dean of Columbia College from 1982 to 1989. At the time of his appointment, the College was firmly in the Sovern era, facing a severe financial crisis, student protests related to South African divestment and concerns regarding the quality of student life, following the institution of co-education and subsequently declining admissions rates. During his tenure, he joined with the Columbia College faculty to oppose a merger with the faculties of other schools at Columbia University. Upon his resignation, he was praised for his honesty, independence, and involvement in student affairs.
Academic Initiatives Pollack took a variety of academic stances during his tenure. At his encouragement, the faculty of the College voted to move up the pass-fail course registration deadline by one month. Pollack opposed the inclusion of computer science in the Core Curriculum. Pollack organized faculty committees to examine the development of additional majors in both African-American studies and gender studies. In 1983, Pollack awarded an honorary degree to Isaac Asimov, who had been forced due to racial quotas to attend Seth Low Junior College, later folded into the Columbia University School of General Studies.
Pollack supported the founding of the Rabi Scholar's cohort, named after Nobel Laureate Isidor Isaac Rabi. The program is designed to encourage talented students in the sciences to attend Columbia College. In 1989, Pollack applied for and received a one million dollar grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, aimed at enhancing undergraduate science education and community outreach, which ensured long-term financial support for the Rabi Scholars program. Additionally, he founded the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program in the Department of Biology, funding students pursuing on-campus summer research internships. He encouraged these students to consider careers in academic post-graduation.
Student Life
Notably, Pollack oversaw the admission of the first female-inclusive class in 1983, appointing a co-education coordinator to facilitate the transition. At the same time, he engineered a merger between the athletics programs of Barnard College and Columbia College. He pushed for renovations to the main student life center, later rebuilt as Alfred Lerner Hall.
Pollack forwarded initiatives to ensure guaranteed housing for all students. A contemporary editorial by the Managing Board of the Columbia Daily Spectator noted that: "College Dean Robert Pollack is clinging to his guarantee of housing for all freshmen like a mother bear to its threatened cub." In addition to the acquisition of the Carlton Arms dormitory, he pushed for the construction of a new dorm on 115th street, which eventually became Schapiro Hall. He successfully convinced Morris Schapiro to donate an addition two million dollars to fund a student center for the arts in the basement of this dorm. Additionally, the college negotiated directly with manufacturers to install computer labs in residence.
In the face of significant financial constraints, Pollack vigorously and successfully defended Columbia College's need-blind admissions policy with alumni donations. A focus within his tenure was to support a more racially and ethnically diverse student body. To this end, he supported the development of an intercultural resource center, bolstering undergraduate student life.
AIDS Epidemic Pollack was one of the first university administers to meet with LGBTQ groups during the AIDS epidemic. He later led an initiative to formulate an AIDS-related policy for Columbia's campus. Additionally, Pollack called for the development of an AIDS vaccine.
South African Divestment In response to increasing student activism related to divestment from South Africa, the Columbia University Senate voted on March 25, 1983, to recommend total divestment, which was in turn rejected by the Trustees of the University. In response, the University Senate appointed Pollack, alongside Louis Henkin and then-student Barbara Ransby, to a seven-member committee, charged with researching university divestment and reporting their results to the trustees. Pollack was selected to chair the committee. Due to opposition from Ransby, the report could not be presented to the University Senate by the end of the 1984 academic year. In response, Pollack directly requested that Columbia University President Michael Sovern recommend that the trustees freeze investments in South Africa, a principal recommendation of the report, which thereafter became known as the Pollack Report. The trustees responded favorably to Pollack's request, instituting a freeze on new investments in June, 1984. The committee, containing a new student representative, approved the report on November 15, 1984, followed by ratification in December, 1984 by the University Senate. In addition to a freeze on investments, the report recommended the formation of a consortium of universities to organize against apartheid, the continuous monitoring of current South African investments by a standing committee, and the funding of educational programs to study social politics in South Africa. Although Pollack strongly defended the committee's work, student activists continued to push for total divestment, organizing a fast and protest simultaneously, blockading the entrance to Hamilton Hall for three weeks. While the trustees accepted only three proposals from the Pollack Report, choosing to maintain the temporary investment freeze agreed to with Pollack in 1984, a worsening human rights situation in South Africa led Pollack and other university administrators to also push for total divestment. The trustees thereafter accepted a two-year divestment plan in October, 1985, making Columbia University the first private institution to move toward total divestment. In order to fund the educational programs recommended by the Pollack Report, the University received a one million dollar grant in 1986 from the Ford Foundation to support interdisciplinary courses in human rights.
Columbia College Bicentennial In 1987, Columbia College celebrated its bicentennial, commemorating the signing of the College charter, in 1987. Pollack led a series of reflection sessions in advance of the event, championing recent advances in African American and Women's studies. He later gave speeches at major gatherings and parades, celebrating the close ties between Columbia College and New York City.
Racial Tensions at Columbia