Thomas A. Steitz (1940–2018)
- 1Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
- 2Department of Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
The world lost one of its best structural biologists when Thomas A. Steitz died at his home in Stony Creek, Connecticut on October 9, 2018. He was a Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University since 1970 and an HHMI investigator since 1986. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Society, his many honors and awards include the Keio Prize, the Gairdner Award, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He continued to do research at his customary high level until shortly before his death at age 78. By focusing on the structures and mechanisms of many of the enzymes involved in the replication and expression of genes, he provided the framework for understanding how these critical pathways function at the atomic level. A crystallographer of such extraordinary breadth and depth and such exceptional accomplishment may never be …
