Seattle, WA-The Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI, now PNDRI) announced this week that the Chairman of its Board of Trustees is stepping down after eight years of distinguished service. Dr. William Hutchinson, Jr., became Chairman in 1995. During his tenure, he oversaw a program of dramatic scientific expansion, laboratory modernization and funding growth. "This has been an era of great progress for PNRI," Hutchinson said in announcing his resignation, "and I am proud to have had the opportunity to play a part in it." Hutchinson will remain on the Board as one of its 12 Trustees.

PNRI was founded in 1956 by Dr. William Hutchinson, Sr., who later went on to create the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In its nearly 50-year history, PNRI has been home to scientific research as diverse as heart-lung machine technology, kidney dialysis, and pioneering prosthesis. Today, it boasts cancer laboratories that are conducting world-class cancer diagnostics and therapeutics research, and the most comprehensive diabetes research program in the region.

The new Board Chairman, Robert Brine, praises his predecessor for guiding the Institute's extraordinary growth in recent years. "Bill's leadership was instrumental in recruiting Dr. Paul Robertson as CEO in 1997, and he and the Board have helped Robertson build the Institute into a significant center for diabetes research."

During Hutchinson's tenure as Board Chair, PNRI expanded its scientific staff exponentially, increased its federal grant funding dramatically, and renovated a major portion of its laboratory space, giving it collaborative openness and new state of the art equipment.

"This is a scientific center of which Dad would have been proud," Hutchinson said. "His first dream was this Institute, and it has far surpassed even his hopes." Hutchinson points to the two National Academy of Science members on the PNRI faculty, by way of illustration. He cites the collaborative islet transplantation research that PNRI leads here in Seattle. And he praises the wide-ranging diabetes research that PNRI scientists are undertaking to advance the prediction, prevention, and cure of disease.

"My father was first and foremost a doctor," Hutchinson says, himself a practicing surgeon. "The work that PNRI is doing to curtail sickness and advance patient health continues to realize his dreams." And, having helped lead the Institute for nearly a decade, his son will continue to serve it in a variety of ways.