Stephen C. Harrison facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Stephen Harrison
Stephen Harrison in 2014, portrait via the Royal Society
Alma mater	Harvard University (BA, PhD)
Spouse(s)	Tomas Kirchhausen
Scientific career
Notable students	Xiaojiang Chen

Stephen C. Harrison is a very important scientist. He teaches about chemistry and biology at Harvard Medical School. He also helps lead research at Boston Children's Hospital. He is part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work helps us understand how tiny parts of living things work.

Stephen Harrison's Education and Career

Stephen Harrison studied at Harvard. He earned his first degree in chemistry and physics in 1963. This is called a Bachelor of Arts (BA).

Later, in 1967, he earned his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard. A Ph.D. is a very advanced degree. He then became a research fellow there. In 1971, he joined the teaching staff at Harvard.

Understanding Stephen Harrison's Research

Stephen Harrison studies the shapes of proteins. Proteins are tiny building blocks in all living things. His research helps us understand many things. This includes how viruses are built. It also covers how DNA talks to proteins. He also studies how cells send signals to each other.

Studying Virus Structures

Harrison has greatly helped the field of structural biology. This field looks at the 3D shapes of tiny parts of life. He is famous for studying viruses and their proteins. He uses a method called crystallographic analysis. This helps him see the shapes of proteins and DNA together.

He was one of the first to use special X-ray methods to study viruses. He started with a virus called tomato bushy stunt virus in 1978. Later, he studied more complex human viruses. These include the outer shell (capsid) of human papillomavirus. He also looked at the outer layer of dengue virus. He even studied parts of HIV.

Research on Complex Cell Parts

His research also looks at very complex cell parts. One example is clathrin-coated vesicles. These are tiny sacs that move things inside cells.

He led a team that studied HIV. This team worked on finding a vaccine for HIV. They received a lot of funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Their goal was to find new ways to create an HIV vaccine.

Stephen Harrison's Society Memberships

Stephen Harrison is a member of many important scientific groups. These groups include the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also part of the National Academy of Sciences. Other groups include the American Philosophical Society and the European Molecular Biology Organization. He is also a member of the American Crystallographic Association. He belongs to the American Association for the Advancement of Science too.

Awards and Honors for Stephen Harrison

Stephen Harrison has received many awards for his work. Here are some of them:

• 1982 Ledlie Prize, Harvard University
• 1988 Wallace P. Rowe Award, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• 1990 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (with Don Wiley and Michael Rossmann), Columbia University
• 1990 Harvey Lecturer, The Harvey Society, New York
• 1995 George Ledlie Prize, Harvard University
• 1997 ICN International Prize in Virology
• 2001 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (with Michael Rossmann)
• 2005 Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Diseases Research
• 2006 Gregori Aminoff Prize in Crystallography (with David Stuart)
• 2007 UCSD/Merck Life Sciences Achievement Award
• 2011 William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award, Harvard Medical School
• 2012 Pauling Lectureship, Stanford University
• 2014 Elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London.
• 2015 The Welch Award in Chemistry
• 2015 Honorary Doctorate in Medicine, University of Milan
• 2018 48th Rosenstiel Award for research on proteins and viruses.

Stephen Harrison's Personal Life

Stephen Harrison is married to Tomas Kirchhausen. Tomas Kirchhausen is also a professor at Harvard Medical School. They got married in 2013.