Howard Kapnek Schachman (December 5, 1918 – August 5, 2016) was a graduate school professor in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

Early life

Schachman was born in Philadelphia in 1918. In high school, he was interested in

sociopolitical Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how p ...

issues, inspired by his mother. He initially pursued liberal arts in college while studying to become a

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

, before switching to

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

in a university. He transferred from the

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 ...

to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, where he graduated in 1939 with a

degree.

Graduate studies

He received a Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1948 and joined the faculty of UC Berkeley. He signed but protested the

loyalty oath Loyalty is a Fixation (psychology), devotion to a country, philosophy, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another human being can be the obj ...

required by the

Regents of the University of California The Regents of the University of California (also referred to as the Board of Regents to distinguish the board from the corporation it governs of the same name) is the governing board of the University of California (UC), a state university sys ...

during

McCarthyism McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...

. He was 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 ...

(1966) and the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, 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 Nati ...

(1968). Among many other honors, he received the AAAS Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award in 2000. The "Howard K. Schachman Public Service Award" of the ASBMB is named after him.

Teaching career

Each spring, he taught the MCB 293C course on Ethical Conduct of Research required for

NIH The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

-funded students. He died at the age of 97 on August 5, 2016.

Personal life

While at Princeton he married Ethel Lazarus.

References

* *

External links

Home page
at the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology,

death announcement
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schachman, Howard K. Princeton University alumni 1918 births 2016 deaths American biochemists Jewish American scientists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of California, Berkeley faculty 21st-century American Jews University of Pennsylvania alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni