Cheryl Y. Hayashi is a

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

who specializes in the evolution and functional properties of

spider silk Spider silk is a protein fibre or silk spun by spiders. Spiders use silk to make webs or other structures that function as adhesive traps to catch prey, to entangle and restrain prey before biting, to transmit tactile information, or as nest ...

. She is the Provost and Sr. Vice President for Science at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

, where she is a curator and professor in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology. She also serves as the Leon Hess Director of Comparative Biology Research. She was a graduate of

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, a professor at University California Riverside, and a 2007

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and 30 individuals workin ...

Education

Hayashi graduated from Iolani High School in 1985 and was a member of the school's first co-educational class. She continued her studies at

, gaining a Bachelor of Science in 1988, Master of Science in 1990, and a Master of Philosophy in 1993. She worked with Prof. Catherine Craig, including field work in Panama, becoming interested in spiders when she had the job of hand-feeding the professor's colony of tropical spiders. She was awarded a PhD by Yale in 1996, with a dissertation on the

systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...

of spiders using

ribosomal DNA The ribosomal DNA (rDNA) consists of a group of ribosomal RNA encoding genes and related regulatory elements, and is widespread in similar configuration in all domains of life. The ribosomal DNA encodes the non-coding ribosomal RNA, integral struc ...

Career

After working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wyoming (1996-2001), Hayashi was a professor at

UC Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in ...

from 2001 to the end of 2016. Her UC Riverside laboratory's work characterized spiders in the

spidroin Spidroins are the main proteins in spider silk. Different types of spider silk contain different spidroins, all of which are members of a single protein family. The most-researched type of spidroins are the major ampullate silk proteins (MaS ...

gene family, including how silk is encoded and studying the basis of molecular diversity in spiders. A variety of techniques, including whole-gene cloning,

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of molecular biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, ...

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 ...

, and

biomechanics Biomechanics is the study of the structure, function and motion of the mechanical aspects of biological systems, at any level from whole organisms to Organ (anatomy), organs, Cell (biology), cells and cell organelles, using the methods of mechani ...

, were used to study the evolution of spider silk. Hayashi worked with engineers and biomechanics to understand spider silk, and to develop

biomaterials A biomaterial is a substance that has been engineered to interact with biological systems for a medical purpose – either a therapeutic (treat, augment, repair, or replace a tissue function of the body) or a diagnostic one. The corresponding f ...

based on spider genetic information. She became curator, professor, and Leon Hess Director of Comparative Biology Research at the

in January 2017, where she initially served as the Director of the Institute for Comparative Genomics. She was appointed Provost and Sr. VP for Science in 2021. Hayashi was a speaker at the TED 2010 Conference.

Awards

She was the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship Program in 2007.

References

External links

"TED 2010 , Cheryl Hayashi: Smooth — and Strong — as Silk"
''Wired'', Kim Zetter, February 10, 2010 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayashi, Cheryl Living people Year of birth missing (living people) ʻIolani School alumni Yale University alumni University of California, Riverside faculty American academics of Japanese descent American scientists of Asian descent MacArthur Fellows American women biologists 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American women scientists