§ 2410. Health research science board. 1. There is hereby established in the department the health research science board. The board shall be comprised of seventeen voting members, three non-voting regional members and three non-voting ex-officio members as follows:

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(a) twelve voting members shall be scientists each of whom shall have either an M.D., D.O., Ph.D., or Dr.P.H. in one of the following fields: biochemistry, biology, biostatistics, chemistry, epidemiology, genetics, immunology, medicine, microbiology, molecular biology, nutrition, oncology, reproductive endocrinology, or toxicology and must currently be engaged in treating patients or conducting health research. Such members shall be appointed in the following manner: two shall be appointed by the temporary president of the senate and one by the minority leader of the senate; two shall be appointed by the speaker of the assembly and one by the minority leader of the assembly; six shall be appointed by the governor;

(b) the governor shall appoint six regional members, three of whom shall serve as full voting members and three of whom shall serve as alternative members without voting rights. Such regional members shall be persons who have or have had breast cancer, and shall be actively involved with a community-based, grass-roots breast cancer organization. Two of such appointments shall be made upon the recommendation of the temporary president of the senate and two shall be made upon the recommendation of the speaker of the assembly. One regional member shall be appointed from each of the following geographic areas of the state: Long Island, New York City, the Hudson Valley, Northern New York, Central New York and Western New York. The order of appointments and recommendations for appointments and voting rights shall rotate as follows:

(i) The governor shall appoint regional members for three year terms in the following order:

(A) Long Island, which member shall have voting rights,

(B) Central New York, which member shall not have voting rights,

(C) Hudson Valley, which member shall have voting rights,

(D) Northern New York, which member shall not have voting rights,

(E) Western New York, which member shall have voting rights, and

(F) New York City, which member shall not have voting rights;

(ii) The governor, upon the recommendation of the temporary president of the senate, shall appoint regional members for three year terms in the following order:

(A) Hudson Valley, which member shall not have voting rights,

(B) Northern New York, which member shall have voting rights,

(C) Western New York, which member shall not have voting rights,

(D) New York City, which member shall have voting rights,

(E) Long Island, which member shall have voting rights, and

(F) Central New York, which member shall not have voting rights; and

(iii) The governor, upon the recommendation of the speaker of the assembly, shall appoint regional members for three year terms in the following order:

(A) Western New York, which member shall have voting rights,

(B) New York City, which member shall not have voting rights,

(C) Long Island, which member shall not have voting rights,

(D) Central New York, which member shall have voting rights,

(E) Hudson Valley, which member shall not have voting rights, and

(F) Northern New York, which member shall have voting rights;

(c) the governor shall appoint three non-voting ex officio members to the board, one of whom shall be the commissioner, or his or her designee, one of whom shall be the commissioner of environmental conservation, or his or her designee, and one of whom shall be the director of the Cornell University Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, or his or her designee; and

(d) the governor shall appoint one voting member who shall be a person who has or has survived breast cancer and one voting member who shall be a person who has or has survived prostate or testicular cancer.

The governor shall designate the chair of the board. The governor, temporary president of the senate, minority leader of the senate, speaker of the assembly, and minority leader of the assembly may solicit recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Federal Agency For Health Care Policy and Research, and the National Academy of Sciences for appointments or recommendations for appointments to the board.

2. All members shall serve for terms of three years and may be reappointed, such terms to commence July first and expire June thirtieth; provided, however, that of the scientific members first appointed, three such members, one appointed by the governor, one appointed by the temporary president of the senate and one appointed by the speaker of the assembly, shall be appointed for terms of one year, and three such members, one appointed by the governor, one appointed by the temporary president of the senate, and one appointed by the speaker of the assembly shall be appointed for a term of two years.

The board shall convene on or before September first, nineteen hundred ninety-seven.

3. Any member, after notice and an opportunity to be heard, may be removed by the governor for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. Any member who fails to attend three consecutive meetings of the board, unless excused by formal vote of the board, shall be deemed to have vacated his or her position.

4. Any vacancy in the board shall be filled for the unexpired term in the same manner as the original appointment.

5. A majority of the voting members of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business or the exercise of any power or function of the board.

6. Members of the board shall not receive compensation for their services as members, but shall be allowed their actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties.

7. For the purposes of this section the following counties shall constitute the following geographic areas:

(a) Long Island: the counties of Nassau and Suffolk.

(b) New York City: the counties of Kings, Queens, Richmond, New York and Bronx.

(c) Hudson Valley: the counties of Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Sullivan and Delaware.

(d) Northern New York: the counties of Albany, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Herkimer, Hamilton, Montgomery, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren and Washington.

(e) Central New York: the counties of Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Seneca, Schuyler, St. Lawrence, Tioga, Tompkins and Wayne.

(f) Western New York: the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans, Wyoming, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Steuben and Yates.