Paul Delos Boyer (July 31, 1918 – June 2, 2018) was an American

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of "biological ch ...

, analytical chemist, and a professor of chemistry at

University of California Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

(UCLA). He shared the 1997

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

for

research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

on the " enzymatic mechanism underlying the

biosynthesis Biosynthesis is a multi-step, enzyme-catalyzed process where substrates are converted into more complex products in living organisms. In biosynthesis, simple compounds are modified, converted into other compounds, or joined to form macromolecul ...

adenosine triphosphate Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is an organic compound that provides energy to drive many processes in living cells, such as muscle contraction, nerve impulse propagation, condensate dissolution, and chemical synthesis. Found in all known forms ...

(ATP)" (

ATP synthase ATP synthase is a protein that catalyzes the formation of the energy storage molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) using adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (Pi). It is classified under ligases as it changes ADP by the formation ...

) with

John E. Walker Sir John Ernest Walker One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 7 January 1941) is a British chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1997. Walker is Emeritus Director an ...

, making Boyer the first

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

-born Nobel laureate; the remainder of the Prize in that year was awarded to Danish chemist Jens Christian Skou for his discovery of the Na+/K+-ATPase.

Birth and education

Boyer was born in

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is the List of cities and towns in Utah, fourth-largest city in Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the largest city and county seat of Utah County, Utah, Utah County and is home to Bri ...

. He grew up in a nonpracticing Mormon family. He attended

Provo High School Provo High School is a public secondary school located in Provo, Utah, United States. It is one of three high schools in the Provo City School District and was the oldest secondary school in the city. In the Summer of 2017 the school district beg ...

, where he was active in

student government A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to so ...

and the debating team. He received a B.S. in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...

from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

in 1939 and obtained a Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

for graduate studies. Five days before leaving for

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, Paul married Lyda Whicker in 1939, and they remained married for nearly eighty years until his death in 2018, making him the longest-married Nobel laureate. The Boyers had three children. Though the Boyers connected with the Mormon community in

, they considered themselves "on the wayward fringe" and doubted the doctrinal claims of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS Church). After experimenting with

Unitarianism Unitarianism (from Latin language, Latin ''unitas'' "unity, oneness", from ''unus'' "one") is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian branch of Christian theology. Most other branches of Christianity and the major Churches accept the Trinity, doctri ...

, Boyer eventually became an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. In 2003 he was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the

Humanist Manifesto ''Humanist Manifesto'' is the title of three manifestos laying out a humanist worldview. They are the original '' Humanist Manifesto'' (1933, often referred to as Humanist Manifesto I), the ''Humanist Manifesto II'' (1973), and ''Humanism and I ...

Academic career

After Boyer received his Ph.D. degree in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

in 1943, he spent years at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

on a war-related research project dedicated to stabilization of serum albumin for transfusions. He began his independent research career at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

and introduced kinetic, isotopic, and chemical methods for investigating

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...

mechanisms. In 1955, he received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

and worked with

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

Hugo Theorell Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell (6 July 1903 – 15 August 1982) was a Swedish scientist and Nobel Prize laureate in medicine. He was born in Linköping as the son of Thure Theorell and his wife Armida Bill. Theorell went to Secondary School at Kat ...

on the mechanism of

alcohol dehydrogenase Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) () are a group of dehydrogenase enzymes that occur in many organisms and facilitate the interconversion between alcohols and aldehydes or ketones with the reduction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) to NA ...

. In 1956, he accepted a Hill Foundation Professorship and moved to the medical campus of the

. In 1959-1960, he served as

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...

of the Biochemistry Section of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

(ACS) and in 1969-1970 as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the American Society of Biological Chemists. Since 1963, he had been a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

. In 1965, he became the Founding Director of the

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and phys ...

Institute and spearheaded the construction of the building and the organization of an interdepartmental Ph.D. program. This institutional service did not diminish the creativity and originality of his research program, which led to three postulates for the binding mechanism for

ATP synthesis ATP synthase is a protein that catalyzes the formation of the energy storage molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) using adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (Pi). It is classified under ligases as it changes ADP by the formation ...

—that energy input was not used primarily to form ATP but to promote the binding of

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...

and mostly the release of tightly bound ATP; that three identical catalytic sites went through compulsory, sequential binding changes; and that the binding changes of the catalytic subunits, circularly arranged on the periphery of the enzyme, were driven by the rotation of a smaller internal

subunit Subunit may refer to: * Subunit HIV vaccine, a class of HIV vaccine *Protein subunit, a protein molecule that assembles with other protein molecules *Monomer, a molecule that may bind chemically to other molecules to form a polymer * Sub-subunit, ...

. Paul Boyer was

Editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...

or Associate Editor of the ''

Annual Review of Biochemistry ''Annual Review of Biochemistry'' is an annual peer reviewed scientific journal published by Annual Reviews, a nonprofit scientific publisher. Its first volume was published in 1932, and its founding editor was J. Murray Luck. The current editor ...

'' from 1963-1989. He was Editor of the classic series, "The Enzymes". In 1981, he was Faculty Research Lecturer at UCLA. In that same year, he was awarded the prestigious

Tolman Medal The Tolman Medal is awarded each year by the Southern California Section of the American Chemical Society (SCALACS) for outstanding contributions to chemistry which include contributions in areas of fundamental studies, chemical technology, and sign ...

by the Southern California Section of the

Death

Boyer died of

respiratory failure Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, meaning that the arterial oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both cannot be kept at normal levels. A drop in the oxygen carried in the blood is known as hypoxemia; a rise ...

on June 2, 2018 at the age of 99, less than two months shy of his 100th birthday at his

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

home.

Publications

*Dahms, A. S. & P. D. Boyer
18O-exchange Reactions Catalyzed By Sodium- and Potassium-dependent Adenosine Triphosphatases"">"Occurrence and Characteristics of ¹⁸O-exchange Reactions Catalyzed By Sodium- and Potassium-dependent Adenosine Triphosphatases"

(UCLA),

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States ...

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (1972). *Kanazawa, T. & P. D. Boyer
"Occurrence and Characteristics of a Rapid Exchange of Phosphate Oxygens Catalyzed by Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Vesicles"

(UCLA),

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (1972). *Boyer, P. D
"Isotopic Studies on Structure-function Relationships of Nucleic Acids and Enzymes. Three Year Progress Report, May 1972 — October 1975"

(UCLA),

(through predecessor agency the Energy Research and Development Administration), (1975). *Boyer, P. D
"Energy Capture and Use in Plants and Bacteria. Final Technical Report"

(UCLA),

, (December 31, 1993).

Awards and honors

References

* * * *

Notes

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1997 ''Energy, Life, and ATP''
Nobel Prize press release — The 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyer, Paul D. 1918 births 2018 deaths American atheists American biochemists American Nobel laureates Brigham Young University alumni Former Latter Day Saints Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Nobel laureates in Chemistry People from Provo, Utah Provo High School alumni University of Minnesota faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Annual Reviews (publisher) editors Members of the American Philosophical Society