Arieh Warshel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Arieh Warshel
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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. This means he studies the chemistry and physics of living things.
Warshel is known for being a leader in using computers to study how biological molecules work. He is a 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 for complex chemical systems." These models help scientists understand how tiny molecules behave.
Contents
About Arieh Warshel
Arieh Warshel was born in 1940 in a kibbutz called Sde Nahum. This was in a place called Mandatory Palestine, which is now Israel.
Early Life and Education
Warshel served in the Israeli Army. He reached the rank of Captain. After his military service, he went to the Technion university in Haifa. He earned his first degree in chemistry in 1966. He graduated with very high honors.
He then continued his studies at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He earned his master's degree in 1967 and his PhD in 1969. His PhD was in Chemical Physics. After that, he worked at Harvard University in the United States. He also worked at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in England. In 1976, he joined the chemistry department at the USC.
Continuing Research in China
In 2017, Warshel opened a new research center in China. It's called the Warshel Institute for Computational Biology. This institute is part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. It focuses on new technologies.
Recognitions and Awards
Arieh Warshel is highly respected for his work. He is especially known for pioneering computer simulations. These simulations help scientists understand how biological systems work. This field is sometimes called Computational Enzymology.
Scientific Memberships
Warshel is a member of many important scientific 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).
- In 2012, he became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
- He received honorary doctorates from Bar-Ilan University (2014) and Uppsala University (2015).
Major Awards
Warshel has received many awards for his scientific contributions.
- In 1993, he won the Annual Award of the International Society of Quantum Biology and Pharmacology.
- He received the Tolman Medal in 2003.
- The ISQBP gave him the President's award for computational biology in 2006.
- He won the RSC Soft Matter and Biophysical Chemistry Award in 2012.
- In 2013, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He shared it with Martin Karplus and Michael Levitt. They were honored for creating "multiscale models for complex chemical systems."
- He received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in 2014.
- The Biophysical Society gave him The Founders Award in 2014.
- He also won the 2013 Israel Chemical Society Gold Medal in 2014.
Key Discoveries
Arieh Warshel made huge steps in using computers to study biological molecules. He helped create programs and methods for this. His work helps us understand how molecules work.
Computer Modeling of Molecules
He pioneered the use of Cartesian-based force field programs. These programs help simulate how molecules move and interact. He also helped develop the Quantum Chemistry/Molecular mechanics (QM/MM) method. This method combines different ways of modeling to study how enzymes cause reactions.
Warshel also performed the first molecular dynamics simulation of a biological process. This means he used computers to watch how molecules change over time. He also developed ways to understand how electric forces work in proteins. His work on free energy perturbation in proteins was also very important. These methods are why he won the Nobel Prize.
Books by Arieh Warshel
- Arieh Warshel. From Kibbutz Fishponds to The Nobel Prize: Taking Molecular Functions into Cyberspace, World Scientific Publishing, 2021.
See Also
In Spanish: Arieh Warshel para niños
- List of Israeli Nobel laureates
- List of Jewish Nobel laureates
- Coarse-grained modeling
- Empirical valence bond
