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Yeah, baby! The Bronx is up!
They must be doing something right at the Bronx HS of Science, because the Nobel committee yesterday awarded an eighth prize to a graduate of the elite school.
Dr. Robert Lefkowitz (celebrating yesterday), a Duke University biomedical researcher and Bronx Science 1959 grad, won the honor for pioneering body-cell studies that led to pharmaceutical advances.
“Prizes can inspire people. Maybe someone at Bronx Science is reading this and says, ‘Look at this, he is a physician and he won for chemistry,’” said Lefkowitz, 69, in a thick Bronx accent. “All previous winners from my school were in physics.”
Lefkowitz will share the award, and the $1.2 million prize money, with former collaborator Brian Kobilka, a Stanford professer.
“The techniques we developed early on in the ’70s and ’80s pretty much changed the ways drugs are developed,” Lefkowitz said.
Lefkowitz, who nicknamed himself “TurboBob” for his love of fast cars, has created an annual scholarship for college-bound Bronx Science grads.
He said it’s “no big surprise” so many of his fellow alumni have won. “You put the smartest people in, at the end, you get the smartest people out,” he said.
Current students said they were inspired.
“I’m gonna be number nine,” boasted senior Ivan Vulin. “If you go to this school, it can definitely propel you and give you a strong base to be better.”
Lefkowitz recalled growing up with the Yankees of Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, and said he could still recall the batting lineup.
“I used to read The New York Post,” he said. “Like the Yankees batting order, I can tell you the way the pages are laid out.”
His award was praised by Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, as well as former Chancellor Harold Levy, a class of 1970 Bronx Science grad.
“The specialized high schools have always been a matter of pride for the city,” Levy said. “Working-class and middle-class children consistently demonstrate they can compete at the highest level.”
Additional reporting by Matt Abrahams