Bruno Hasbrouck Zimm (October 31, 1920 – November 26, 2005) was an American

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

. He was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of chemistry and

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, a ...

from

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

, and a leading

polymer chemist Polymer chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that focuses on the structures, chemical synthesis, and chemical and physical properties of polymers and macromolecules. The principles and methods used within polymer chemistry are also applicabl ...

and

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

researcher.

Early life

Zimm was born an only child in 1920 in Woodstock, New York. His father was the sculptor Bruno Louis Zimm, and his mother a writer. Zimm graduated from

Kent School Kent School is a private college-preparatory day and boarding school in Kent, Connecticut. Founded in 1906, it is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. It educates around 520 boys and girls in grades 9–12. Kent was one of the first schools ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

in 1938. After obtaining his Ph.D. in physical chemistry under the tutelage of

Joe Mayer Joseph Mayer (1846 – November 27, 1909) was an American businessman, gold prospector and pioneer who founded the town of Mayer, Arizona. Early years Mayer (birth name: Joseph Hoffmayer) was born in Olean, New York, to French immigrants. He ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1944, he moved across town for postdoctoral work with

Herman Mark Herman Francis Mark (born Hermann Franz Mark; May 3, 1895, Vienna – April 6, 1992, Austin, Texas) was an Austrian-American chemist regarded for his contributions to the development of polymer science. Mark's X-ray diffraction work on the molec ...

at the

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United St ...

, where he began his research on light scattering.

Career

Research

In 1956, Zimm extended the

Rouse model The Rouse model is one of the simplest coarse-grained descriptions of the dynamics of polymer chains. It treats a single polymer as an Ideal chain of ''N'' point-like beads connected by harmonic springs and neglects both excluded volume and ...

Polymer Physics Polymer physics is the field of physics that studies polymers, their fluctuations, mechanical properties, as well as the kinetics of reactions involving degradation of polymers and polymerisation of monomers.P. Flory, ''Principles of Polymer Che ...

to include hydrodynamic interactions mediated by the solvent between different parts of the chain. Whilst the original Rouse model overestimates the decrease of the diffusion coefficient D with the number of polymer beads N as 1/N, the Zimm model predicts D~1/Nν which is consistent with the experimental data for dilute polymer solutions, and where ν is the Flory exponent, a measure of the polymer solubility. In 1959, together with J.K. Bragg, Zimm wrote a classic paper on the helix-coil transition for polypeptides; a year later he published a second paper on the “melting” of the helical forms of DNA.

References

External links

Bruno Zimm Papers
MSS 675
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library. 1920 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American chemists Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Kent School alumni University of California, San Diego faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American polymer scientists and engineers Fellows of the American Physical Society {{US-chemist-stub

Early life

Career

Research

See also

References

External links