BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
2
SEPTEMBER
2014
BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY
Officers
President
Dorothy Beckett
President-Elect
Edward Egelman
Past-President
Francisco Bezanilla
Secretary
Lukas Tamm
Treasurer
Paul Axelsen
Council
Olga Boudker
Taekjip Ha
Samantha Harris
Kalina Hristova
Juliette Lecomte
Amy Lee
Marcia Levitus
Merritt Maduke
Daniel Minor, Jr.
Jeanne Nerbonne
Antoine van Oijen
Joseph D. Puglisi
Michael Pusch
Bonnie Wallace
David Yue
Biophysical Journal
Leslie Loew
Editor-in-Chief
Society Office
Ro Kampman
Executive Officer
Newsletter
Ray Wolfe
Alisha Yocum
Production
Laura Phelan
Profile
Ellen Weiss
Public Affairs
The
Biophysical Society Newsletter
(ISSN 0006-3495) is published
twelve times per year, January-
December, by the Biophysical
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Distributed to USA members
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Biophysicists in Profile
Sean Decatur
, biophysicist and President of Kenyon College, uses his posi-
tion to advocate for undergraduate science education, something he benefit-
ted from during his time as a student at Swarthmore College. His career in
biophysics began when he worked with
Robert Pasternak
and
Alison Williams
on an undergraduate research project involving liposome-encapsulation of
porphyrin aggregates. He recalls, “The project was an introduction to a range
of biophysical techniques, and I was very excited about the application of
physical techniques to biological systems.”
Upon graduating from Swarthmore, Decatur went on to earn his PhD in
chemistry from Stanford University. He joined
Steven Boxer’s
group, work-
ing on developing a novel myoglobin mutant first created by
Doug Barrick
in
Buzz Baldwin’s
lab, with which Boxer’s group had monthly joint group meet-
ings. Decatur made an impression on Boxer early on with both his science
and his personality. Boxer remembers, “There was a conflict between two
people in the lab during the time Sean was a graduate student. To my amaze-
ment and relief, he personally stepped in and managed this conflict largely
without my knowing that there even was a problem. It was clear then that he
possessed both great talent as a scientist and as a human being and leader.”
Decatur then proceeded to a faculty position at Mount Holyoke College.
He was able to set up his own lab and obtain external funding to develop an
undergraduate research program at Mt. Holyoke. He says, “I found that I
could work on interesting problems, mentor undergrads and use research as
a way to introduce them to scientific thinking, and keep my hands active at
the bench…I would encourage any grad students or postdocs with interests
in this area to investigate this as a career direction. There is a good network
of PUI [primarily undergraduate institution] faculty within the Biophysical
Society.”
When he started this research program, he aimed to explore protein struc-
ture and dynamics with a technique that undergraduate students without
a research background could grasp. Decatur explains, “FTIR proved to be
a valuable tool for this work. Undergraduates could be involved in sample
preparation (via peptide synthesis or molecular biology techniques), the col-
lection of spectra, or the interpretation or modeling of data.” Working with
undergraduates and helping them to evolve into independent scientists has
been the most rewarding aspect of Decatur’s career.
Sarah Petty
, a former
postdoc in his lab, saw his dedication and the effectiveness of his methods
firsthand during her years working with him. At undergraduate institutions,
Petty says, “The students have much less time to work in the lab and do
not have the same background in course material or lab skills that gradu-
ate students and postdocs have, so entrusting large projects to them is not
always the best approach.” Sean’s students all had ownership of their own
projects, but their result often contributed to a bigger, overarching goal in the
lab. Decatur also encouraged his students to attend the Biophysical Society
Annual Meeting, where he first presented his work as a graduate student. He
explains, “They were the first places where I presented my work and discov-
ered the wide range of biophysics research out there. The connections I have
made over the years are invaluable. As a faculty mentor, my students have had
SEAN DECATUR
