Arieh Warshel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Arieh Warshel
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| אריה ורשל | |
Warshel in 2009
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| Born | November 20, 1940 Kibbutz Sde Nahum, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel)
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| Nationality | Israeli, American |
| Education | |
| Known for | Computer simulation, Computational enzymology, electrostatics, enzyme catalysis |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral advisor | Shneior Lifson |
Arieh Warshel (born November 20, 1940) is a famous Israeli-American scientist. He is a biochemist and biophysicist. He helped create ways to study how living things' molecules work using computers. He is a special professor at the University of Southern California. In 2013, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He shared this award with Michael Levitt and Martin Karplus. They won for creating "multiscale models" to understand complex chemical systems. This means they found ways to use computers to study tiny molecules and big systems at the same time.
Contents
Arieh Warshel's Life Story
Arieh Warshel was born in 1940 in a place called kibbutz Sde Nahum. This was in Mandatory Palestine, which is now Israel. He served in the Israeli Army. He was a captain.
His Education Journey
After the army, Warshel went to the Technion university in Haifa. He earned his first degree in chemistry in 1966. He graduated with "summa cum laude," which means "with highest honors." Later, he got his master's and PhD degrees in Chemical Physics. He studied at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. His teacher was Shneior Lifson.
Working and Discovering
After his PhD, he worked at Harvard University for a few years. Then he returned to the Weizmann Institute. He also worked at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in England. In 1976, he joined the chemistry department at the USC. He continued his important research there.
His Work Today
Arieh Warshel is still active in science. In April 2017, he opened a new research center. It's called the Warshel Institute for Computational Biology. This institute is at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen campus. It focuses on new technologies.
Awards and Recognitions
Warshel is well-known for his work in using computers to study biology and chemistry. He was a pioneer in using computer simulations to understand how biological systems work. He also helped create "Computational Enzymology." This field uses computers to study how enzymes work.
Important Memberships
He is a member of many important science groups.
- He became a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2009.
- He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2008).
- He is also a Fellow of the Biophysical Society (2000).
- He became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012.
- He received honorary doctorates from Bar-Ilan University (2014) and Uppsala University (2015).
Major Awards Received
Arieh Warshel has received many awards for his scientific contributions.
- He won the Tolman Medal in 2003.
- In 2013, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He shared it with Martin Karplus and Michael Levitt. They were honored for developing "multiscale models for complex chemical systems."
- He received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in 2014.
Key Research Discoveries
Arieh Warshel made big steps in using computers to understand how biological molecules work. He helped create computer programs and methods. These methods allow scientists to study how molecules function in detail.
Computer Modeling Innovations
He helped develop the "QM/MM" method. This method combines two ways of studying molecules: Quantum Chemistry and Molecular mechanics. It's used to simulate how enzymes cause chemical reactions. He also did the first molecular dynamics simulation of a biological process. This means he used computers to show how molecules move and change over time in living systems. His work also included creating models for how electricity works inside proteins. He also studied how energy changes in proteins. These methods are why he won the Nobel Prize.
Books by Arieh Warshel
- Arieh Warshel wrote a book called From Kibbutz Fishponds to The Nobel Prize: Taking Molecular Functions into Cyberspace. It was published in 2021.
More to Explore
- List of Israeli Nobel laureates
- List of Jewish Nobel laureates
See also
In Spanish: Arieh Warshel para niños
