Remembering Anke L. Nolting, PhD

At a March 2006 Alumni Council dinner, Anke Nolting, left, posed with Judith Sulzberger’49, Roy Vagelos’54, and Erin Wilkes’07.

Anke Nolting, PhD, who retired at the end of 2019 as associate dean and executive director of development and alumni relations at VP&S, died Oct. 12, 2022. She had spent nearly 40 years with the VP&S Alumni Association.

Dr. Nolting’s start at Columbia was in VP&S labs. She spent two years in the laboratory of neurologist Malcolm B. Carpenter and two years in Eric Kandel’s Center for Neurobiology & Behavior. After joining the VP&S Alumni Association in 1980, she and her team worked with generations of medical students and alumni. The number of professorships and scholarship endowments increased under Dr. Nolting’s leadership. Notable among them are five professorships funded by Clyde Wu’56 and the Kenneth A. Forde Diversity Scholarship.

Her work also supported programs in genetics and nurture science, including the Judy Sulzberger’49 Human Genome Center and the Clyde Wu’56 Center for Molecular Biology. She also played a key role in the launch of the Wu Family China Center for Health Initiatives through her partnership and friendship with Clyde’56 and Helen Wu and the extended Wu family.