Earl Reece Stadtman

NAS Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air (S ...

(November 15, 1919 – January 7, 2008)Curriculum Vitae on history.nih.gov
/ref> 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 (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

,Washington Post: Earl R. Stadtman, 88; Revered Biochemist, Mentor at NIH; By Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb; Sunday, January 13, 2008
/ref>
/ref> notable for his research on

enzymes An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst 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 pro ...

New York Times: Oxygen-Free Chamber Is Built To Spur Studies of Living Cells; By HAROLD M. SCHMECK Jr.; April 06, 1967
/ref> and

anaerobic bacteria An anaerobic organism or anaerobe is any organism that does not require molecular oxygen for growth. It may react negatively or even die if free oxygen is present. In contrast, an aerobic organism (aerobe) is an organism that requires an oxygenat ...

Career

Stadtman started his career as a research assistant in the Division of Plant Nutrition of the University of California. Subsequently he was an Atomic Energy Commission Fellow with Fritz Lipmann in the Massachusetts General Hospital, but after 1960 he worked at the National Heart Institute, where he became chief of the Laboratory of Biochemistry. In addition, he spent sabbatical periods at the

Max Planck Institute The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

in Munich and the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (, ) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. Th ...

in Paris.

Personal life

In 1944 Earl Stadtman married Thressa Campbell, also a distinguished scientist, the discoverer of

selenocysteine Selenocysteine (symbol Sec or U, in older publications also as Se-Cys) is the 21st proteinogenic amino acid. Selenoproteins contain selenocysteine residues. Selenocysteine is an analogue of the more common cysteine with selenium in place of the ...

. They had no children during their marriage of more than sixty years.

Research

Stadtman's research covered a wide field. Early in his career he worked with

Horace Barker Horace Albert "Nook" Barker (November 29, 1907 – December 24, 2000) was an American biochemist and microbiologist who studied the operation of biological and chemical processes in plants, humans and other animals, including using radioactiv ...

on bacterial fatty-acid synthesis, with a series of four papers. In the same period he collaborated with

Fritz Lipmann Fritz Albert Lipmann (; June 12, 1899 – July 24, 1986) was a German-American biochemist and a co-discoverer in 1945 of coenzyme A. For this, together with other research on coenzyme A, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in ...

on the function of coenzyme A. Later his work took on a more enzymological character, with investigation of, for example, aldehyde dehydrogenase, aspartate kinase, work carried out during a period in the laboratory of Georges Cohen in France and, most notably, glutamine synthetase, an enzyme that will always be associated with his name. From the 1970s onwards Stadtman published many papers with P. Boon Chock on the capacity of cycles of interconvertible enzymes, based especially on his results with glutamine synthetase, to generate very high sensitivity to effectors.

Editorial work

Stadtman was active as an editor of numerous prominent journals, including the ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'', 1960–1965, ''Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics'', 1960–1969; ''Annual Review of Biochemistry'', 1972–2000; ''Biochemistry'', 1969–1976; ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'', 1974–1981; ''Trends in Biochemical Sciences'', 1975–1978. He was (with Bernard Horecker) founding editor of ''Current Topics in Cellular Regulation,'' a major series in the subject, and continued in the role up to volume 23 (1984).

Awards and honours

* 1953:

Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry The Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, formerly known as the Paul-Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry was established in 1945. Consisting of a gold medal and honorarium, its purpose is to stimulate fundamental research in enzyme chemistry by scientists ...

* 1966: Medallion of the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public university, public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced S ...

, Italy * 1969: elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

* 1969: elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

* 1970: awarded Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology * 1972: Medallion of the

University of Camerino The University of Camerino () is a university located in Camerino, Italy. It is the best university of Italy among those with fewer than 10,000 students, according to the Guida Censis Repubblica 2011 and 2012 ranking. It claims to have been foun ...

, Italy * 1979:

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

* 1983: President, American Society of Biological Chemists * 1983: ASBC-Merck Award * 1987: Honorary Doctor of Science,

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

* 1988: Honorary Ph.D.,

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

, Israel * 1991:

Welch Award in Chemistry The Welch Award in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Robert A. Welch Foundation, based in Houston, Texas, to encourage and recognize basic chemical research for the benefit of mankind. The award, which has been given since 1972, is one of th ...

* 1999: Honorary Ph.D.,

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stadtman, Earl Reece 1919 births 2008 deaths University of California, Berkeley alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences National Medal of Science laureates People from Lincoln County, New Mexico Scientists from New Mexico 20th-century American biochemists National Institutes of Health people