Donald M. Engleman Named to Endowed Biochemistry Chair at Yale

Donald M. Engelman of Guilford has been named Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry by vote of the Yale Corporation. In his laboratory, Professor Engelman is working with cell membranes to understand how the one-dimensional information found in gene sequences is converted through protein folding into three-dimensional molecules.

Professor Engleman is using X-ray diffraction, neutron scattering, electron microscopy, optical spectroscopy and biochemical methods to determine how proteins fold.

After receiving his undergraduate degree in physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Professor Engelman earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from Yale in 1964 and 1967. He held postdoctoral fellowships at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco and at Kings College at the University of London.

A member of the Yale faculty since 1970, Professor Engelman served as acting dean of Yale College for the 1992-93 academic year. As chair of the department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, he helped plan and oversaw the early construction phases for the Perry R. Bass Center for Molecular and Structural Biology. He has served on numerous other University committees.

This May, Professor Engelman was among four Yale biochemists elected to the National Academy of Sciences. His awards and honors include fellowships from the National Institutes of Health and the Guggenheim Foundation.