Emil L. Smith (July 5, 1911 – May 31, 2009) was an American biochemist who studied protein structure and function as well as biochemical evolution. Initially intending to go into medicine, Smith became interested in biology and organic chemistry during his second year at

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 ...

. He earned a B.S. in 1931 and stayed at Columbia to study

photosynthesis Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...

under

Selig Hecht Selig Hecht (February 8, 1892 – September 18, 1947) was an American physiologist who studied photochemistry in photoreceptor cells. Biography Hecht was born into a Jewish family in Glogau, then in the German Empire (now Głogów, Poland), the ...

, completing a Ph.D. in

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

in 1936. In 1938, he went to

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

on a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

to work with

David Keilin David Keilin FRS (21 March 1887 – 27 February 1963) was a British Jewish scientist focusing mainly on entomology. Background and education He was born in Moscow in 1887 and his family returned to Warsaw early in his youth. He did not att ...

on the chlorophyll-protein complex. Upon returning to the U.S. during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he took a position at

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 ...

's Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station to work with Hubert Bradford Vickery. He joined the lab of eminent protein chemist

Max Bergmann Max Bergmann (12 February 1886 – 7 November 1944) was a Jewish- German biochemist. Together with Leonidas Zervas, the discoverer of the group, they were the first to use the carboxybenzyl protecting group for the synthesis of oligopeptides. ...

at the Rockefeller Institute in 1940, where he worked with a number of important biochemists and began a significant line of research on the intestinal enzyme erepsin. Between 1942 and 1946, he worked at E. R. Squibb & Sons on the production of human blood products for use in the war. In 1946 he became an associate professor (and ultimately full professor) at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

. In 1958,

Emanuel Margoliash Emanuel Margoliash (February 10, 1920 – April 10, 2008) was a biochemist who spent much of his career studying the protein cytochrome c. He is best known for his work on molecular evolution; with Walter Fitch, he devised the Fitch-Margoliash ...

joined his lab and they began working on the

peptide sequence Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty ami ...

of the protein cytochrome c; based on comparisons between cytochrome c from different species, Smith and Margoliash performed some of the earliest work in the field of

molecular evolution Molecular evolution describes how Heredity, inherited DNA and/or RNA change over evolutionary time, and the consequences of this for proteins and other components of Cell (biology), cells and organisms. Molecular evolution is the basis of phylogen ...

, applying the idea of the

molecular clock The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate of biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms diverged. The biomolecular data used for such calculations are usually nucleot ...

to the highly conserved cytochrome c sequence. In 1969, he worked with James Bonner to sequence

histone H4 Histone H4 is one of the five main histone proteins involved in the structure of chromatin in eukaryote, eukaryotic cells. Featuring a main globular domain and a long N-terminus, N-terminal tail, H4 is involved with the structure of the nucleo ...

in several species, which was also of significant use in evolutionary studies. In 1963, he moved to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

as professor and chair of the department of biological chemistry in the school of medicine, and became an emeritus professor in 1979. He was 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 ...

in 1962, 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 ...

in 1962, and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1973. In 1987, Smith won the Stein-Moore Award of

The Protein Society The Protein Society is an international, not-for-profit, scholarly society with the mission to provide forums for the advancement of research into protein structure, function, design and applications. History The Protein Society was founded in ...

References

Sources

*"Smith, Emil L." ''American Men & Women of Science''. Katherine H. Nemeh, ed. 25th ed. 8 vols. Gale, 2008. *"Emil L. Smith." ''Marquis Who's Who''. Marquis Who's Who, 2008. *

External links

Emil L. Smith's obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Emil L. 1911 births 2009 deaths University of Utah faculty American biochemists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Columbia University School of General Studies alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society