Donald M. Engelman has been named Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular and Biophysics and Biochemistry by vote of the Yale Corporation.
In his laboratory, Professor Engelman is working with cell membranes to understand how the one-dimensional information found in gene sequences is converted through protein folding into three-dimensional molecules. He is using X-ray diffraction, neutron scattering, electron microscopy, optical spectroscopy and biochemical methods to determine how proteins fold.
After receiving his undergraduate degree in physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Professor Engelman earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from Yale (1964 and 1967). He held postdoctoral fellowships at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco and at Kings College at the University of London. A member of the Yale faculty since 1970, Professor Engelman served as acting dean of Yale College for the 1992-93 academic year. As chair of the department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, he helped plan and oversaw the early construction phases for the Perry R. Bass Center for Molecular and Structural Biology. He has served on numerous other University committees.
This May, Professor Engelman was among four Yale biochemists elected to the National Academy of Sciences. His awards and honors include fellowships from the National Institutes of Health and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Peter B. Moore has been named Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry by vote of the Yale Corporation.
Professor Moore, who has appointments in the departments of biology and of chemistry, is studying the structure and function of RNA and ribonucleoproteins, which may play a far more complex role in gene expression than previously believed. To determine the underlying biochemistry of RNA, he and his colleagues are using high-field nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray crystallography.
The biophysical chemist earned his B.S. summa cum laude from Yale in 1961. He went on to earn his doctorate from Harvard University and to pursue postdoctoral studies at Cambridge University in England and the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He joined the Yale faculty in 1969. Chair of the chemistry department 1987-90, Professor Moore has served on several University committees, most recently on the Science Facilities Planning Committee.
This May Professor Moore was one of four Yale biochemists elected to the National Academy of Science. He is also a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. His awards and honors have included fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as the Yale Scientific and Engineering Association Award. He also serves on advisory committees at Brookhaven and Oakridge national laboratories.
Mark Mooseker has been appointed as the Ross Granville Harrison Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology by vote of the Yale Corporation.
In his laboratory, Professor Mooseker is pursuing questions regarding the molecular and functional organization of a cell's cytoskeleton, which is made up of fibrous proteins that give the cell its structure. In recent years, the major thrust of the laboratory's research has focused on the biology and genetics of myosins, one of the most recently discovered of the motor proteins, i.e., molecules that power cell motion such as cell division. Professor Mooseker and his colleagues have identified more than a dozen novel myosins in recent years.
Professor Mooseker earned both a B.A. cum laude with distinction in biology and a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. He came to Yale in 1979, upon completing his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School, which were supported by the Muscular Dystrophy Association of America. At Yale, he has appointments both in the biology department and in the department of cell biology at the School of Medicine.
A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Professor Mooseker is also a member of the American Society for Cell Biology and has served on the editorial boards of several professional journals.