William Allen Eaton is a biophysical chemist who is a NIH Distinguished Investigator, Chief of the Section on Biophysical Chemistry, and Chief of the Laboratory of Chemical Physics at the

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, one of the 20 Institutes of the

United States National Institutes of Health United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

Early life and education

Eaton was born and raised in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Like many in his family, he attended 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 ...

as an undergraduate, majoring in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and graduating in 1959. He then spent one year in Germany as the first Willy Brandt - University of Pennsylvania exchange student at the Free University Berlin. He entered Penn

medical school 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, ...

in the Fall of 1960, but discovered that he was more interested in research, particularly after spending the summer of 1962 carrying out research on protein biosynthesis under the supervision of

Sydney Brenner Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to wo ...

at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England. He decided to pursue a Ph.D. and became one of Penn's first M.D.-Ph.D. students, working with Robin Hochstrasser on molecular spectroscopy of single crystals of

heme protein A hemeprotein (or haemprotein; also hemoprotein or haemoprotein), or heme protein, is a protein that contains a heme prosthetic group. They are a very large class of metalloproteins. The heme group confers functionality, which can include oxyg ...

s. He received his M.D. in 1964 and his Ph.D. in 1967. After finishing his Ph.D. research, he was drafted into the military and chose to fulfill his military obligation as a medical officer in the

United States Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services which manages public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The assistant s ...

, where he could conduct research at the

National Institutes of Health 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 ...

Research career

Eaton has spent his entire career at the NIH after arriving as a medical officer in the Public Health Service in January 1968, leaving only once for a significant period of time to teach physical chemistry as a visiting professor at Harvard for the Spring semester of 1976. In 1972, he was tenured in the then-new Laboratory of Chemical Physics and became its chief in 1986. Eaton's early work at NIH built on his work on heme proteins, focusing mainly on

hemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin, Hb or Hgb) is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the sole exception of the fish family Channichthyidae. Hemoglobin ...

and the abnormal aggregation of the mutant form of the protein found in sickle-cell anemia. In the early 1990s, Eaton began to focus on theoretical and experimental studies of

protein folding Protein folding is the physical process by which a protein, after Protein biosynthesis, synthesis by a ribosome as a linear chain of Amino acid, amino acids, changes from an unstable random coil into a more ordered protein tertiary structure, t ...

and has been particularly influential in the study of fast-folding proteins and applications of single molecule fluorescence spectroscopy. In addition to research, Eaton is credited for developing the Laboratory of Chemical Physics within the

, NIH into one of the very top biophysics/structural biology departments in the USA. Eaton, as Chief of the Laboratory of Chemical Physics, recruited the legendary theorist, Robert Zwanzig, and scientists such as Ad Bax, Marius Clore FRS, Angela Gronenborn, Attila Szabo, and Robert Tycko all of whom were subsequently elected to the US National Academy of Sciences. As Scientific Director from 1986-2018 of the Intramural AIDS Targeted Anti-viral Program of the Office of the Director, NIH, Eaton directed a program that contributed to the sterling record of NIH scientists in meeting the AIDS crisis, a program that has been a model for new special granting programs within NIH.

Awards and honors

* 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 ...

, 1997 * Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

, 1998 * 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 ...

, 2006 * Founders Award, Biophysical Society, 2006 * Hans Neurath Award, Protein Society, 2009 * Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists, 2009 * Foreign Fellow,

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in ...

, Rome (2011) * Max Delbruck Prize in Biological Physics,

, 2012 * 2014 Distinguished Graduate Award, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvani

* 2015 Penn Chemistry Distinguished Alumni Awar

* Doctor rerum naturalium honoris causa, Free University Berlin (2016) * Laurea Honoris Causa, University of Parma (2018) William Eaton receiving Honorary Laurea from University of Parma
/ref> * Festschrift, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, December 13, 201

* 2019 Henry M. Stratton Medal of the American Society of Hematolog

* 2022 Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society

References

External links

Oral history interview transcript with William Eaton on 12 and 16 July, 2020, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaton, William American biophysicists Scientists from Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania alumni National Institutes of Health faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society Living people Year of birth missing (living people)