The Niskayuna Hall of Fame Selection Committee is pleased to announce that Dr. Jonathan L. Haines, Niskayuna High School Class of 1975, is the 2005 Hall of Fame inductee.

Dr. Haines will be honored at Niskayuna High School’s commencement ceremony at 7 p.m. on June 23 at Proctor’s Theater. The Hall of Fame located at the main entrance of Niskayuna High School and founded in 1983 recognizes Niskayuna graduates who have made significant contributions to their professions or communities. (Dr. Haines’ brother, Dr. Stephen Haines, was inducted in 2003.)

Dr. Haines is director of one of the premier genetics research centers in the world, the Center for Human Genetics Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

He is also a professor of molecular physiology and biophysics at Vanderbilt. Dr. Haines has become internationally recognized for his research into the genetic basis of Alzheimer’s disease, and has authored more than 265 scientific publication articles.

Dr. Haines has participated in or led nearly all of the research that has identified the four known genes affecting Alzheimer’s disease. In the late 1980s, when the prevailing wisdom was that late-onset of the disease was not genetic, Dr. Haines was an essential part of the team that proved this untrue.

Recently Dr. Haines reported the identification of a new gene that controls the age at which symptoms begin. According to the Hall of Fame Selection Committee, "Dr. Haines’ pioneering works in the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease, and his commitment to finding its causes, merit this prize."

Dr. Haines earned a bachelor’s degree from Colby College in 1979 and a doctorate in genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1984. He also completed post-doctoral training at Indiana University.

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