King-Wai Yau (; born October 27, 1948) is a Chinese-born American neuroscientist and Professor of Neuroscience at

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a Private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Ho ...

in Baltimore, Maryland.

Biography

Born in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

(formerly called Canton),

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

, China, he was the sixth of seven children. His family relocated to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

within months of his birth. His father, a businessman, died when Yau was only five years old. He attended secondary school in Buddhist Wong Fung Ling College and

St. Paul's Co-educational College St. Paul's Co-educational College (SPCC; ) is an Anglican secondary school located at 33 MacDonnell Road, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1915 as a girls-only school until the outbreak of World War II, after which it was converted int ...

in Hong Kong, before entering

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

Faculty of Medicine to study medicine. Not wanting to be a physician, however, he departed for the United States in 1968 after only one year of medical study. He received an A.B. in physics (University Scholar; Phi Beta Kappa) from

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

in 1971 and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in 1975, completing his doctoral thesis under John G. Nicholls, a former student of

Bernard Katz Sir Bernard Katz, FRS (; 26 March 1911 – 20 April 2003) was a German-born British physician and biophysicist, noted for his work on nerve physiology; specifically, for his work on synaptic transmission at the nerve-muscle junction. He share ...

. He did postdoctoral work with Denis A. Baylor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, then with Sir Alan L. Hodgkin at

University of Cambridge 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 ...

, United Kingdom. Thereafter, he was on the faculty of

University of Texas Medical Branch The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a Public university, public Academic health science centre, academic health science center in Galveston, Texas, United States. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the olde ...

at Galveston (1981–86), rising to Professor of Physiology and Biophysics in 1985. In 1986, he became Professor of Neuroscience and Investigator of

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

(1986-2004) at

, where he has been since.

Scientific contributions

He is known for discoveries on how light and odor are sensed in the eye and the nose, triggering neural signals to be transmitted to the brain. He has greatly elucidated the properties of the light responses and their underlying phototransduction mechanisms in retinal rods and

cones In geometry, a cone is a three-dimensional figure that tapers smoothly from a flat base (typically a circle) to a point not contained in the base, called the ''apex'' or '' vertex''. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, ...

, as well as in intrinsically-photosensitive retinal ganglion cells which express the photopigment,

melanopsin Melanopsin is a type of photopigment belonging to a larger family of light-sensitive retinylidene protein, retinal proteins called opsins and encoded by the gene ''Opn4''. In the mammalian retina, there are two additional categories of opsins, b ...

, to mediate mostly non-image vision such as

pupillary light reflex The pupillary light reflex (PLR) or photopupillary reflex is a reflex that controls the diameter of the pupil, in response to the intensity ( luminance) of light that falls on the retinal ganglion cells of the retina in the back of the eye, t ...

and

photoentrainment In chronobiology, photoentrainment refers to the process by which an organism's biological clock, or circadian rhythm, synchronizes to daily cycles of light and dark in the environment. The mechanisms of photoentrainment differ from organism to orga ...

of the

circadian rhythm A circadian rhythm (), or circadian cycle, is a natural oscillation that repeats roughly every 24 hours. Circadian rhythms can refer to any process that originates within an organism (i.e., Endogeny (biology), endogenous) and responds to the env ...

. He has made similarly important discoveries on olfactory transduction in the receptor neurons of the nasal olfactory epithelium. His work impacts broadly on understanding G-protein signaling at a quantitative level. His investigations on the spontaneous activity of rod and cone pigments have provided a physicochemical explanation for why our vision does not extend into

Infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

wavelengths. He is a Member of 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 ...

and the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

, and a Fellow of 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 ...

, as well as a Member of

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...

, Taiwan.

Selected honors & awards

* 1978,

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an American philanthropic nonprofit organization. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., president and chief executive officer of General Motors. The Sloan Foundation makes grants to support origina ...

Fellow * 1980, Visiting Fellow,

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, United Kingdom * 1980, Rank Prize in

Optoelectronics Optoelectronics (or optronics) is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, ''light'' often includes invisible forms of radi ...

, The Rank Prize Funds, United Kingdom * 1993, Friedenwald Award, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) * 1994,

Alcon Alcon Inc. () is a Swiss-American pharmaceutical and medical device company specializing in eye care products. It has a paper headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland but its operational headquarters are in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, where it ...

Award in Vision Research, Alcon Research Institute * 1995, Fellow,

* 1996, Magnes Prize,

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

* 2004, Teacher of the Year,

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

School of Medicine A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

* 2005,

Award in Vision Research (second time),

Research Institute * 2006, Balazs Prize, International Society for Eye Research (ISER) * 2008,

António Champalimaud António de Sommer Champalimaud (19 March 1918 in Lapa (Lisbon), Lapa, Lisbon – 8 May 2004 in Lapa, Lisbon) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese banker and industrialist. He was the wealthiest man in Portugal, gaining his fortune through insuran ...

Vision Award, The

Champalimaud Foundation The Champalimaud Foundation MHM () is a private biomedical research foundation. It was created according to the will of the late entrepreneur António de Sommer Champalimaud, in 2004. The complete name of the foundation honors the mother and f ...

, Portugal * 2010, Member,

* 2012, CNIB Chanchlani Global Vision Research Award, Canada * 2013,

Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are A ...

* 2016, RRF Paul Kayser International Award for Retinal Research (ISER) * 2017, Daniel Nathans Scientific Innovator Award,

* 2018, Member,

* 2019, Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research, Helen Keller Foundation & BrightFocus Foundation * 2019, Beckman-Argyros Vision Award
Arnold & Mabel Beckman Foundation
* 2022, Member,

, Taiwan

Highly-Cited Papers

Articles with over 500 citations according to Google Schola

as of May 6, 2017: *1979 "The membrane current of single rod outer segments", 607 citations *1979 "Responses of retinal rods to single photons", 819 citations *1989 "Cyclic GMP-activated conductance of retinal photoreceptor cells", 590 citations *1990 "Primary structure and functional expression of a cyclic nucleotide-activated channel from olfactory neurons", 672 citations *1998 "Identification of ligands for olfactory receptors by functional expression of a receptor library", 534 citations *2002 "Melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells: architecture, projections, and intrinsic photosensitivity", 1579 citations *2003 "Melanopsin and rod–cone photoreceptive systems account for all major accessory visual functions in mice", 838 citations *2003 "Diminished pupillary light reflex at high irradiances in melanopsin-knockout mice", 608 citations *2005 "Melanopsin-expressing ganglion cells in primate retina signal colour and irradiance and project to the LGN", 798 citations *2006 "Central projections of melanopsin‐expressing retinal ganglion cells in the mouse", 518 citations

References

External links

Vision Award, Champalimaud Foundation (2008)Alcon Research Award past recipients (1994, 2005)Friedenwald Award, ARVO - Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology (1993)King-Wai Yau laboratory web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yau, King-Wai American biophysicists American neuroscientists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1948 births Living people Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Harvard Medical School alumni Princeton University alumni Physicists from Guangdong People from Guangzhou Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese neuroscientists Chinese biophysicists Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Hong Kong physicists Johns Hopkins University faculty University of Texas Medical Branch faculty Stanford University alumni Educators from Guangdong Biologists from Guangdong Members of the National Academy of Medicine