Frank Westheimer
Frank Henry Westheimer ( born January 15, 1912 in Baltimore, † April 14, 2007 in Cambridge ( Massachusetts)) was an American chemist and biochemist.
Life
Westheimer graduated from Dartmouth College in 1932, then he enrolled in the Graduate School of Harvard University. After the graduation in 1935 he went to Columbia University, in the following year took a position at the University of Chicago. During World War II he worked at the Explosives Research Laboratory in Bruceton at Pittsburgh. Then he returned to Chicago. From 1953 he was a professor at Harvard. From 1967 to 1970 he was one of the scientific advisors Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1983 he became Professor Emeritus.
Frank Westheimer was married in 1937 to Jeanne Friedman († 2001). From this marriage two daughters were born.
Work
Frank Westheimer was the author of over 200 scientific publications. Together with Birgit Vennesland and colleagues, he showed by deuterium labeling that hydrogen is transferred to NAD -dependent redox reactions directly on the coenzyme and that catalyzed by the alcohol dehydrogenase reaction is stereospecific. By Edward A. Dennis Westheimer developed from 1966 rules for the occurrence of pseudo- rotation in the hydrolysis of phosphoric acid esters. Westheimer led the photoaffinity labeling, a method for the investigation of ligand -receptor interactions, a. Another field of Westheimer was the mechanism of enzymatic decarboxylation of acetoacetate.
1964/65 was Westheimer before a committee of the National Academy of Sciences ( National Academy of Sciences Committee for the Survey of Chemistry ), which evaluated the promotion of chemical basic research and an increase of corresponding federal spending demanded.
Awards
In 1980, Westheimer the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences " for his pioneering research in the field of organic chemistry and enzymatic reactions by application of physical chemistry ", 1981 Rosenstiel Award and the 1982 Welch Award in Chemistry.
In 1986, the National Medal of Science awarded him. The American Chemical Society honored him in 1988 with the Priestley Medal from "for his series of extraordinary, original and profound research on the mechanisms of organic and enzymatic reactions that play a unique role in improving our knowledge of the types of progression of chemical and biochemical processes played ".
The Harvard University founded in 2002 by Frank H. Westheimer Medal.