DNA AND CELL BIOLOGY Volume 34, Number 7, 2015 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. P. 503 DOI: 10.1089/dna.2015.28999.csr
OBITUARY
Alexander Rich (November 15, 1924–April 27, 2015) Carol Shoshkes Reiss
Alexander Rich, a founding Editorial Board member of DNA and Cell Biology and a pre-eminent biophysicist, passed away at 90 years old. Dr. Rich earned both an AB ‘47 and MD ‘49 from Harvard. He did postdoctoral studies with Linus Pauling at Caltech, at the same time as Jim Watson (1949–1954). From 1954 to 1958, he served as the Physical Chemistry Section Chief at the National Institutes of Mental Health. He joined the faculty of MIT in 1958, where he was later named the William Thompson Sedgewick, Professor of Biophysics. He remained at MIT until his death. While they all performed research on the structure of DNA, Rich made the first observations of left-handed Z-DNA: Crawford et al. (1980). The tetramer d(CpGpCpGp) crystalizes as a left-handed double helix, Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 77:4016; Wang et al. (1981). Left-handed double helical DNA: variations in the backbone conformation, Science 211:171; and Thamann et al. (1981). The high salt form of poly(dG-dC).poly(dG-dC) is left-handed Z-DNA: Raman spectra of crystals, Nucleic Acids Res 9:5443. Dr. Rich also described polysomes: Rich et al. (1963). Polyribosomes: size in normal and polio-infected Hela cells. Science 142:1658. The recipient of numerous honors and awards for his work, Dr. Rich was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1978, the Institute of Medicine, and received the National Medal of Science in 1995. He continued to earn accolades as recently as 2008, the Welch Award for Chemistry. We were fortunate to have him guiding the Journal in its nascent years.
503
OBITUARY
Alexander Rich (November 15, 1924–April 27, 2015) Carol Shoshkes Reiss
Alexander Rich, a founding Editorial Board member of DNA and Cell Biology and a pre-eminent biophysicist, passed away at 90 years old. Dr. Rich earned both an AB ‘47 and MD ‘49 from Harvard. He did postdoctoral studies with Linus Pauling at Caltech, at the same time as Jim Watson (1949–1954). From 1954 to 1958, he served as the Physical Chemistry Section Chief at the National Institutes of Mental Health. He joined the faculty of MIT in 1958, where he was later named the William Thompson Sedgewick, Professor of Biophysics. He remained at MIT until his death. While they all performed research on the structure of DNA, Rich made the first observations of left-handed Z-DNA: Crawford et al. (1980). The tetramer d(CpGpCpGp) crystalizes as a left-handed double helix, Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 77:4016; Wang et al. (1981). Left-handed double helical DNA: variations in the backbone conformation, Science 211:171; and Thamann et al. (1981). The high salt form of poly(dG-dC).poly(dG-dC) is left-handed Z-DNA: Raman spectra of crystals, Nucleic Acids Res 9:5443. Dr. Rich also described polysomes: Rich et al. (1963). Polyribosomes: size in normal and polio-infected Hela cells. Science 142:1658. The recipient of numerous honors and awards for his work, Dr. Rich was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1978, the Institute of Medicine, and received the National Medal of Science in 1995. He continued to earn accolades as recently as 2008, the Welch Award for Chemistry. We were fortunate to have him guiding the Journal in its nascent years.
503
