Paul D. Boyer

Infobox_Scientist
name = Paul D. Boyer

---

image_width =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1918|7|31|mf=y
birth_place = Provo Utah
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = United States
field = Chemistry
alma_mater = Brigham Young University
University of Wisconsin-Madison

work_institution = University of California, Los Angeles
known_for = Adenosine triphosphate
prizes = Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1997)
religion = Atheist [ [http://ffrf.org/fttoday/2004/march/?ft=boyer Freethought Today, March 2004 ] ]

Paul Delos Boyer (born July 31, 1918) is an American biochemist. He is one of the laureates for the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on the "enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)".

Birth and education

Boyer was born in Provo, Utah. He attended Provo High School, where he was active in student government and the debating team. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Brigham Young University in 1939 and obtained a Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Scholarship for graduate studies. Five days before leaving for Wisconsin, Paul married Lyda Whicker. They remain married and have three children: Gail B. Hayes, Alexandra Boyer and Dr. Douglas Boyer; and eight grandchildren: Imran Clark, Mashuri Clark, Rashid Clark, Djahari Clark, Faisal Clark, Lisa A. Hayes, Leah Boyer and Josh Boyer.

Academic career

After Boyer received his Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1943, he spent years at Stanford University on a war-related research project dedicated to stabilization of serum albumin for transfusions. He began his independent research career at the University of Minnesota and introduced kinetic, isotopic, and chemical methods for investigating enzyme mechanisms. In 1955, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and worked with Professor Hugo Theorell on the mechanism of alcohol dehydrogenase. In 1956, he accepted a Hill Foundation Professorship and moved to the medical campus of the University of Minnesota. In 1959-1960, he served as Chairman of the Biochemistry Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and in 1969-1970 as President of the American Society of Biological Chemists.

Since 1963, he has been a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of California, Los Angeles. In 1965, he became the Founding Director of the Molecular Biology Institute and spearheaded the construction of the building and the organization of an interdepartmental Ph.D. program. This institutional service did not diminish the creativity and originality of his research program, which led to three postulates for the binding mechanism for ATP synthesis-- that energy input was not used primarily to form ATP but to promote the binding of phosphate and mostly the release of tightly bound ATP; that three identical catalytic sites went through compulsory, sequential binding changes; and that the binding changes of the catalytic subunites, circularly arranged on the periphery of the enzyme, were driven by the rotation of a smaller internal subunit.

Paul Boyer was Editor or Associate Editor of the Annual Review of Biochemistry from 1963-1989. He was Editor of the classic series, "The Enzymes". In 1981, he was Faculty Research Lecturer at UCLA.

Awards

He received the Rose Award of the American Society of Chemistry and Molecular Biology in 1989; Honorary doctorates from the Universities of Stockholm (1974), Minnesota (1996), and Wisconsin (1998); and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1997.

References

*Citation
id = PMID:12181328
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12181328
last=Boyer
first=Paul D
publication-date=2002 Oct 18
year=2002
title=A research journey with ATP synthase.
volume=277
issue=42
periodical=J. Biol. Chem.
pages=39045-61
doi = 10.1074/jbc.X200001200
*Citation
id = PMID:12068893
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12068893
last=Allchin
first=Douglas
publication-date=2002
year=2002
title=To err and win a nobel prize: Paul Boyer, ATP synthase and the emergence of bioenergetics.
volume=35
issue=1
periodical=Journal of the history of biology
pages=149-72
*Citation
id = PMID:9674216
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9674216
last=Lores Arnaiz
first=G R
publication-date=1998
year=1998
title= [Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1997: Jean Skou, Paul Boyer and John Walker: the motor of life]
volume=58
issue=1
periodical=Medicina (B Aires)
pages=107-9
*Citation
id = PMID:7737466
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7737466
last=Boyer
first=P D
publication-date=1995 Apr
year=1995
title=From human serum albumin to rotational catalysis by ATP synthase.
volume=9
issue=7
periodical=FASEB J.
pages=559-61

Publications

*Dahms, A. S. & P. D. Boyer. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0191&numPages=45&fp=N "Occurrence and Characteristics of {sup 18}O-exchange Reactions Catalyzed By Sodium- and Potassium-dependent Adenosine Triphosphatases"] , University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (1972).
*Kanazawa, T. & P. D. Boyer. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0192&numPages=57&fp=N "Occurrence and Characteristics of a Rapid Exchange of Phosphate Oxygens Catalyzed by Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Vesicles"] , University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (1972).
*Boyer, P. D. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0223&numPages=18&fp=N "Isotopic Studies on Structure-function Relationships of Nucleic Acids and Enzymes. Three Year Progress Report, May 1972 -- October 1975"] , University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Energy Research and Development Administration), (1975).
*Boyer, P. D. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0193&numPages=6&fp=N "Energy Capture and Use in Plants and Bacteria. Final Technical Report"] , University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), United States Department of Energy, (December 31, 1993).

External links

* [http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/boyer.html Photograph, Biography and Bibliographic Resources] , from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
* [http://www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1997/boyer-autobio.html Nobel autobio.-- Paul D. Boyer]
* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1997/press.html Nobel Prize press release-- The 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry]
* [http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/boyer.html UCLA webpage-- Paul D. Boyer]