Robert Sinsheimer

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Robert Louis Sinsheimer , often referred to as Robert L. Sinsheimer in scientific literature , (born February 5, 1920 in Washington, DC , † April 22, 2017 in Santa Barbara ) was an American biophysicist and molecular biologist .

life and work

Education

Sinsheimer was born in Washington, DC. He attended secondary school in Chicago. From 1936 he studied chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . However, he then switched his major towards quantitative biology and biotechnology. He graduated in 1941. During the Second World War he became a member of the MIT Radiation Laboratory and helped develop aircraft radars. After the war, he enrolled at MIT's biophysics graduate school, where he received his doctorate in 1949.

MIT, Iowa State College, and Caltech

Sinsheimer initially took over a faculty position at MIT, but moved in 1949 as a professor of biophysics at Iowa State College . In 1957 he moved to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as professor of biophysics in the same department . From 1968 to 1977 he headed the Division of Biology at Caltech .

During this time he conducted investigations into the physical and genetic properties of the bacteriophage Phi X 174. In this work, he examined viral genetic processes. Sinsheimer and colleagues succeeded for the first time in isolating, purifying and synthetically replicating viral DNA. The phage Phi X 174 was an ideal model for these studies, as it only had a single strand of DNA of approximately 5500 nucleotides. These nucleotides code for eleven genes. In addition, this model made it easy to extract samples of bacteriophage DNA.

UC Santa Cruz

In 1977 Sinsheimer left Caltech to become Chancellor at the University of California, Santa Cruz . The position of Chancellor offered him the opportunity to discuss the risks and opportunities of recombinant DNA technologies and cloning techniques with society. He explicitly advocated the accountability of science to society. Furthermore, Sinsheimer was committed to promoting scientific competence and scientific understanding among non-natural scientists. The first years at the University of Santa Cruz were particularly challenging. During this time, this institution re-established itself as a university of excellence under the conditions of tight educational budgets in research and teaching. Among other things, Sinsheimer was able to put the Keck observatory into operation and set up programs for agroecology, applied economics, for seismic studies and in the field of high-energy physics. In addition, computer science was set up as a course of study under his leadership.

Genome project

In May 1985, Sinsheimer organized a conference in Santa Cruz to investigate the possibilities of sequencing the entire human genome. The human genome project, which achieved its goal in 2000 , was established as a result of this preliminary work . Sinsheimer repeatedly brought up the social and ethical implications of this project.

UC Santa Barbara

After his tenure at UC Santa Cruz, he moved to the University of California Santa Barbara Faculty of Biology as Professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology in 1987 . He was succeeded by Robert Bocking Stevens . In 1990 he retired, but remained active in laboratory research for many years.

Honors

Sinsheimer was admitted to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1965 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1967. In 1968 he was named California Scientist of the Year . In 2001 he received the Presidential Medal from the University of California for excellence in higher education. The then President of UC Richard C. Atkinson praised his services as a teacher, researcher and in the management of the UC Santa Cruz campus and the initiation of the human genome project.

Sinsheimer wrote more than 200 scientific articles. He published his biography "The Strands of a Life: The Science of DNA and the Art of Education" in 1994.

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Sinsheimer, Robert Louis. In: encyclopedia.com. 2003, accessed on July 22, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad Tim Stephens: Pioneering biologist Robert L. Sinsheimer dies at age 97. In: news.ucsc .edu. UC Santa Cruz, April 24, 2017, accessed July 22, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Members of the American Academy: Listed by election year, 1950–1999. Accessed July 22, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Robert Sinsheimer. National Academy of Sciences, accessed July 22, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Sinsheimer, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sinsheimer, Robert Louis (full name); Sinsheimer, Robert L.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biophysicist and molecular biologist
DATE OF BIRTH 5th February 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 2017
Place of death Santa Barbara