Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 29, 2008|Volume 36, Number 20

Yale chemist honored for contributions to teaching generations of biophysicists

Donald Crothers, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, was recently awarded the 2008 Emily M. Gray Award of the Biophysical Society for “significant contributions to education through creating rigorous, groundbreaking texts enriching generations of biophysicists.”

He shared the award with David S. Eisenberg of the University of California, Los Angeles. The two co-authored the 1979 text “Physical Chemistry with Applications to the Life Sciences,” which has become a standard textbook in the field.

The award winners were invited to present the Emily M. Gray Lecture at the Student Symposium of the 2008 Joint Biophysical Society Annual Meeting and IUPAB International Biophysics Congress Awards Ceremony on Feb. 4 in Long Beach, California.

Crothers’ research seeks to understand how the structure, dynamics and protein-binding properties of nucleic acids contribute to their function. His current work includes the characterization of nucleic acids’ affinity for regulatory proteins and the way such proteins deform DNA as part of their biological function. He also focuses on the dynamics of protein-DNA complexes, with particular interest in the relationship between the DNA sequence and the energy and kinetics that characterize DNA bending by proteins.

Crothers began garnering awards for his research talent at an early age as a National Finalist in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search in 1954. He went on to earn a B.S. in chemistry summa cum laude at Yale in 1958. He joined the Yale chemistry faculty in 1964, after completing his doctoral research at the University of California, San Diego, in 1963 and his postdoctoral research at the Max-Planck Institute in Göttingen, Germany.

At Yale, Crothers has trained over 60 Ph.D. students, and led the Department of Chemistry through periods of growth as its chair 1975-1981 and 1993-1999.

The Biophysical Society, founded in 1956, is a professional, scientific society for biophysics, whose nearly 8,000 members throughout the U.S. and the world promote growth in this expanding field through its annual meeting, monthly journal, and committee and outreach activities. For more information on the society visit www.biophysics.org.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale-engineered virus can attack brain tumors

Trustees set next steps in residential college expansion

Going back to the ‘basics’ of medicine on the wards of Uganda

New center promotes the study of Hellenic culture and civilization

Study to examine Internet-based programs for diabetic children

Study offers insight into possible cause of lymphoma

Lorimer lauded for contributions to corporate boards

Yale chemist honored for contributions to teaching . . .

Show documents people and fauna of the ‘New World’

‘Chronicler of American life’ is next Maynard Mack lecturer

Contemporary images of the Virgin Mary are featured in . . .

Symposium will explore human rights issues related to . . .

Police Academy for citizens to be held this spring

Arabic music past and present is explored in new exhibition

Chinese ‘Year of the Rat’ celebrated at Yale

Hundreds of schoolchildren will gather in Yale ‘castle’ . . .

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes