Biophysical Society Newsletter - November 2014

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2014

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

AUGUST

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY

Biophysicist in Profile Jim Weisshaar , Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, came late to biophysics, after studying gas phase collisions and spectroscopy using lasers and molecular beams as a physical chemist for 25 years. “In 1997,” he says, “I spent a sabbatical year with Ed Samulski at UNC Chapel Hill studying the structure of alanine dipeptide in liquid crystalline media. Assigning those many sharp lines arising from dipolar couplings got me interested. A few years later, I dropped the gas phase and started learning single-molecule fluorescence. I call it my ‘scientific mid-life crisis,’ to distin- guish it from the other ones.” Weisshaar first became engaged in science during his high school chemistry class. He was lucky to have a teacher, Richard Burke , who believed in the abilities of his students. Weisshaar recalls, “He had us solving the Schrodinger equation for the hydrogen atom in Chem II! I thought quantized atomic energy levels that could be computed accurately were amazing.” Recently, the two reconnected. “Mr. Burke called me up out of the blue. I hadn’t spoken with him since high school days. Evidently he had googled me. It was a spe- cial treat catching up with him, now 72 years old and running his own farm.” After high school, Weisshaar attended Michigan State University, where he earned his bachelor of science in chemistry. He then went on to the Univer- sity of California, Berkeley, where he completed his PhD in chemistry with Brad Moore as his advisor. Weisshaar completed his postdoc at the University of Colorado, Boulder, working on gas phase ion collisions under Steve Leone, Barney Ellison , and Veronica Bierbaum . Following his postdoc, Weisshaar landed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he established himself in the Department of Chemistry. He worked happily in physical chemistry for twenty-five years before changing fields. “Changing fields from gas phase physical chemistry to biophysics has been a huge challenge,” Weisshaar says. “It turns out that all the molecular quantum mechanics I knew became instantly irrelevant. Now I need stat mech and thermo! On the other hand, my quantitative instincts from [my] physical chemistry days have served me well. Learning enough cell biology to be able to talk with those folks in their own language has been the hardest part. That’s a continuing challenge. The Department [of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison] was very patient during the transition years.” William Moerner of Stanford University and 2014 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is a colleague in the single-molecule field who has watched Weisshaar’s transition into biophysics over the past decade. Moerner says, “In the mid-2000s, he switched from more conventional physical chemistry to biophysics, and he has become a leader in the use of single-molecule studies to understand a variety of biophysical problems such as diffusion in mem- branes and super-resolution analysis of bacterial protein distributions…He is a friendly, deep colleague who always presents a careful, incisive analysis.” Weisshaar’s longtime colleague at Wisconsin, Tom Record , admires the transi- tion Weisshaar has been able to achieve. “He made a remarkable transition from gas phase chemical physicist to molecular and cellular JIM WEISSHAAR

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 Society, 11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 800, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Distributed to USA members and other countries at no cost. Canadian GST No. 898477062. Postmaster: Send address changes to Biophysical Society, 11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 800, Rockville, MD 20852. Copyright © 2014 by the Biophysical Society. Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

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