“Everyone said ‘Yes, I would put her at the top of my list,’” Wright said.

It was shortly after that meeting that Rawson approached Tilghman and asked her to consider stepping down from the committee to allow herself to be considered as a candidate.

Though the committee was concerned their affection for Tilghman might cloud their judgment, they took many precautions to avoid such bias, and according to Wright, “they actually held her to a higher standard.”

Dual Roles

Before coming to Princeton, Tilghman had already proven herself a leader in the fields of molecular biology and genetic research.

While pursuing her postdoctoral studies at the National Institute of Health, Tilghman assisted other scientists in the laboratory of Dr. Philip Leder in cloning the first mammalian gene.

She was also among the first to introduce cloned genes into the mouse germline to study their properties.

Tilghman is a trustee for Rockefeller University and Cold Spring Laboratory and a member of the Royal Society of London, the U.S. Institute of Medicine and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.