Renowned Molecular Artist Speaks April 2 at USU
“Art, Metaphor and Informatics in Protein and RNA Structure” is the topic for 2008 R. Gaurth Hansen Seminar Series speaker Jane Richardson’s April 2 talk at Utah State University.
Richardson, the James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University, speaks at 4 p.m. in Eccles Science Learning Center, room 046. Her lecture, hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is free and open to all.
“Professor Richardson, along with her husband, David, also a professor at Duke, pioneered the field of protein de novo design,” says USU chemistry faculty member Sean Johnson, seminar host. “She’s best known as the originator of ribbon drawings representing protein structures; first hand-drawn, then later adapted to computer-generated images. Her drawings have become the worldwide standard for illustrating proteins.”
Richardson, a MacArthur Fellow, describes the process of creating protein drawings as “fascinating.”
“First, the structures are very aesthetically pleasing – especially, for me, the varied and elegant curves,” she says. “Second, making a drawing can change one’s scientific understanding of a protein.”
As a teen scientist, Richardson won third place nationally in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search by calculating the orbit of Sputnik 1 from her own observations. She majored in philosophy, with minors in math and physics, at Swarthmore College and continued her studies in philosophy, botany and science teaching at Harvard. Though she never completed a doctorate degree, Richardson has subsequently been awarded three honorary doctorates of science. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
Richardson is the sixth annual Hansen Seminar speaker. The seminar series honors the late R. Gaurth Hansen, a USU alum who joined the university’s faculty in 1968. A nationally respected biochemist, Hansen served for 16 years as an academic vice president and as Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences and Chemistry/Biochemistry at Utah State. He was named USU Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 1985.
The Hansen seminar series is made possible by an endowment established by William Rutter, co-founder and former chairman of the board of the Chiron Corporation.
For more information about the seminar, contact USU’s Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at 435-797-1619.
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Contact: Sean Johnson (435) 797-2089, sean.johnson@usu.edu
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto (435) 797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto (435) 797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu
Hansen Seminar guest Jane Richardson pioneered the field of protein illustration. She speaks at USU April 2.
Richardson is the James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University.
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