Elaine Fuchs is a renowned for her research in skin biology, its stem cells and associated genetic disorders, particularly cancers. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Princeton. After postdoctoral research at MIT, she joined the faculty at University of Chicago. In 2002, she relocated to Rockefeller University, where she is the Rebecca C. Lancefield professor of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development. Fuchs has been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1988. Her awards and honors include the Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences, the National Medal of Science from the President of the United States, the L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for women in science, the Albany Prize in Medicine, the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology, the Pasarow Award in Cancer, the Pezcoller Award in International Cancer Research, the EB Wilson Award in Cell Biology, the Vanderbilt Prize for science and for mentoring women scientists, and the McEwen Award for Innovation in Stem Cell Research. Fuchs is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, American Philosophical Society, European Molecular Biology Organization (foreign member), and in 2018, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the oldest scientific society in the world. She holds honorary doctorates from NYU School of Medicine, University of Illinois, Albany Medical College and Harvard University. She is past-President of American Society for Cell Biology, The International Society for Stem Cell Research and the Harvey Society. She serves on the NYAS Board of Governors. She’s trained 30 graduate students and 100 postdocs, most now at academic universities and medical schools. Her latest work focuses on how stem cells cope with stress, ranging from wounding to inflammation to cancer. Her science dissects how stem cells form, survive and change their chromatin landscape to adjust to ever-changing and stressful microenvironments, including chemo and immunotherapies.