The William Maul Measey Professorship of Physiology

William Maul MeaseyThe Professorship was established in 1998 through gifts from the Benjamin and Mary Siddons Measey Foundation in honor of William Maul Measey (1875–1967), an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania Law School Class of 1898.

William Maul Measey, a distinguished corporate attorney in Philadelphia, created the Benjamin and Mary Siddons Measey Foundation in 1958 to honor the memory of his parents. Since the Foundation supports several colleges, universities, schools of medicine, and hospitals in the Philadelphia area, the Measey name has become synonymous with the furtherance of medical education in the region.

Holzbaur photoCurrent Chairholder
Erika L. F. Holzbaur, PhD

Erika L.F. Holzbaur, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Physiology at the Perelman School of Medicine and a member of the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute. She is a member of the Cell and Molecular Biology, Neuroscience and Biochemistry/Molecular Biophysics Graduate Groups. Dr. Holzbaur's research investigates intracellular dynamics in neurons, focusing on molecular motors and organelle transport, autophagy, and neurodegeneration.

Dr. Holzbaur received her PhD from the Pennsylvania State University and completed her training at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology. She joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1992. Dr. Holzbaur previously served on Council for the American Society for Cell Biology and is currently serving as the 2023 President of the society. She has served on the Editorial Boards for Cell, The Journal of Cell Biology and Molecular Biology of the Cell. She received the Javits Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the F.E. Bennett Award from the American Neurological Association, and the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research and the Jane M. Glick Graduate Student Teaching awards from the Perelman School of Medicine. She is the first woman in the Department of Physiology to hold an endowed chair, and received the Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Award from ASCB.

Previous Chairholders

  • H. Lee Sweeney, PhD 1998–2015