Endowed Lectureships
As part of the BMB Colloquium the department, with the generous support of contributors, hosts four endowed lectureships each year that pay tribute to outstanding scientists from the department. These scientists are described below.
Presenters for the Charles C. Sweeley Lectureship in Biochemistry, the Nathan Edward Tolbert Lectureship in Plant Biochemistry, and the William W. Wells Lectureship are selected by the BMB Colloquium committee.
Presenters for the biannual John A. Boezi and R. Gaurth Hansen Alumnus Award lectures are determined by the BMB Awards Committee.Charles C. Sweeley Lectureship in Biochemistry
Professor Charles C. Sweeley was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1930. He received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois. After five years at the National Institutes of Health, he launched his academic research career at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1968 he was recruited to East Lansing as Professor of Biochemistry at MSU. Dr. Sweeley served as Chair of this department from 1979-1985 and as Assistant Dean for Research, College of Human Medicine from 1973-1977.
Chuck Sweeley led the way in bringing technical advances in instrumentation to bear on important biochemical and medical questions. He founded the Mass Spectrometry Facility which served the MSU research community and the nation as a NIH sponsored Regional Facility. With Jack Holland and Mel Schindler, he co-founded Meridian Instruments. His "musical urinalysis" garnered international attention. His contributions in the application of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to analysis and characterization of carbohydrates and lipids were recognized in 2001 when he received the Anachem Award from the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies.
Dr. Sweeley is nationally and internationally renowned for his pioneering research in the discovery of the structure of insect juvenile hormone, glycosphingolipid structure and metabolism related to Fabry's disease, glycolipid metabolism in normal and transformed cells, glycolipid tumor antigens, and metabolic profiling. He and his colleagues published more than 180 papers in peer-reviewed journals and more than 50 book chapters. He served on the editorial board of numerous journals including Journal of Lipid Research, Biochemistry, Biochemical Preparations, Lipids, Biomedical and Environmental Mass Spectrometry, Medical Biology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Analytical Biochemistry, and Glycoconjugate Journal.
He also served often on grant review panels such as the NIH Medicinal Chemistry B Study Section and the American Cancer Society Advisory Council.
Many students benefited from rigorous and effective training under Dr. Sweeley's mentorship at Pitt and at MSU, including 3 M.S. students and 20 Ph.D. students. His laboratory attracted dozens of postdoctoral associates and visiting scientists from around the world.
His extraordinary accomplishments as a scientist, teacher, mentor and administrator have been honored by MSU in conferring a Distinguished Faculty Award (1986), the Michigan Scientist of the Year award (1988), and designation as a University Distinguished Professor (1990).
Dr. Sweeley retired to new status as professor emeritus in 1992, but has remained actively engaged in promoting biomedical research. His most recent endeavor is the formation of the Michigan Institute for Stem Cell Research, a nonprofit entity with the mission to foster the application of stem cells for treating human diseases including neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, ALS, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
In honor of the achievements of Chuck Sweeley as a scientist and his impact on the scientific community at MSU, his many friends and colleagues have endowed this lectureship.
Nathan Edward Tolbert Lectureship in Plant Biochemistry
Professor Nathan Edward Tolbert ("Ed" to his family and friends) was born May 19, 1919, on a farm outside Twin Falls, Idaho. His interest and love for plant biochemistry stemmed in great part from this background. Ed went to a small country school in Twin Falls County, Idaho, and graduated from Twin Falls High School in a class of 200 students. His first two college years were spent at Idaho State University in Pocatello, but Ed then completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. Throughout his undergraduate years, he returned each summer to the Idaho farm to help his father. After graduation from Berkeley, Ed took a job as a research technician in the Enology Department at the University of California, Davis. Ed enlisted in the US Army Air Force in 1943, and became an officer. He came out of the war with a very clear purpose - to obtain his Ph.D. in Biochemistry. He was accepted at what was then considered the premier school for biochemistry, the University of Wisconsin, Madison. At Wisconsin, his work with Professor Burris, who was to become one of his long term mentors, stimulated his interest in photosynthesis. After completing his photosynthesis work in Professor Melvin Calvin's laboratory at UC-Berkeley, Ed took an administrative job at Atomic Energy Commission headquarters in Washington, DC, but after only two years, he elected to go back to research at Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Tennessee. In 1958, Ed was recruited to MSU by Dr. R. Gaurth Hansen and joined the newly established Department of Biochemistry in the College of Agriculture. Drs. Tolbert and Willis Wood designed the MSU Biochemistry Building which was completed in 1964.
Scientifically, Ed thought big thoughts...the air we breathe, the food we eat, CO2 and O2 production and balance. His research interests included the key enzyme in plant metabolism, Rubisco, plant glycolate metabolism, and peroxisomal metabolism in plants and animals. He took great pride in the students and postdoctoral fellows he trained. He published more than 270 papers and, in 1984, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
In May 1997, Ed published a prefatory chapter for Annual Review of Plant Physiology entitled, "The C-2 Oxidative Photosynthetic Carbon Cycle." At the end of the chapter, Ed dealt with the topic of himself only briefly: "This research occurred over a long period of time that was robbed from my family. I am most grateful to them for tolerating my single-minded devotion to it, which remains my only work and hobby. In the first draft of this chapter, I tried to mention names and results of all graduate students, postdocs, and visitors, who did the work. The review was far too long. For each of these associates our paths ran together for a valuable time, and I am forever grateful."
Ed Tolbert passed away on Sunday, December 13, 1998. On the previous Friday, he had been in his MSU office, still working. The Nathan Edward Tolbert Endowed Lectureship is supported by his many friends and colleagues as a tribute to this outstanding scientist.
William W. Wells Lectureship in Biochemistry
Professor William W. Wells was born in Traverse City, Michigan and was educated in East Lansing schools. He graduated from East Lansing High School where he was both a scholar and athlete. After service in the Navy in World War II, he obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin. His first faculty appointment was in Biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh where he served for about ten years before being recruited to East Lansing in 1966 as Professor of Biochemistry at Michigan State University.
Bill Wells has had an illustrious scholarly career having made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the metabolism of steroids, phosphoinositides and vitamin C. He has authored more than 125 refereed publications and 18 invited book chapters. Dr. Wells has served on the editorial boards of Hypertension and the Journal of Biological Chemistry and numerous advisory panels and study sections for NIH, NSF, the American Heart Association, and the American Chemical Society. Dr. Wells is an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association and recipient of a Distinguished Faculty Award from the College of Human Medicine. He has trained over 40 Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows.
John A. Boezi Memorial Alumnus Award
Professor John A. Boezi was born in Binghamton, NY. He graduated from St. Bonaventure University and received his doctorate from the University of Illinois. He did post-doctoral work at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore, MD and at the National Center for Scientific Research in France.
In 1963, he joined the faculty of the newly formed Department of Biochemistry at Michigan State and played a pivotal role in developing molecular biology as an important aspect of the Department.
One major research effort of the Boezi laboratory was the Marek's disease virus, a herpes virus that causes malignant lymphoma in susceptible chickens. He and his colleagues identified and characterized Marek's disease virus-induced DNA polymerase in productively infected cells and elucidated the mechanism of phosphonoacetate inhibition of the viral DNA polymerase. Phosphonoacetate has proved to be a specific and effective inhibitor of the replication of Marek's disease virus, herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2, Epstein-Barr virus, and human cytomegalovirus.
In 1977, Professor Boezi was honored with a Josiah Macy Foundation fellowship for a sabbatical year in the laboratory of Dr. I. Robert Lehman at Stanford University.
At Michigan State, Professor Boezi was also recognized as an excellent teacher. His dedication to teaching and his uncompromising principles of integrity and performance were respected by students and faculty colleagues. His untimely death in 1980 has inspired the establishment of an award, given annually in his memory, to a B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. recipient from this Department who has gone on to a distinguished career that reflects the qualities personified by John Boezi.
The John A. Boezi Memorial Alumnus Award Awardee presents a seminar and is honored at the department's annual award's banquet in even numbered years.
R. Gaurth Hansen Alumnus Award
R. Gaurth Hansen was the founding Chairperson of the Department of Biochemistry at Michigan State University. In establishing this new department, Dr. Hansen brought together a core of faculty who, until their incorporation into the newly formed department, had held appointments in other basic science or agriculturally-related departments at Michigan State. Dr. Hansen also initiated an active recruiting program that brought many young scientists into their first academic appointments as junior faculty members in the fledgling department. In the ensuing years, the junior faculty members hired by Dr. Hansen matured into senior faculty whose leadership and contributions promoted the continued development of the department. Thus, this department owes much to the critical judgment and foresight with which Dr. Hansen selected the early members of this department, and to his solicitous attention to their continued development as teachers and investigators during his eleven year tenure (1957-1968) as Chairperson.
To honor the memory of Dr. R. Gaurth Hansen and to recognizing the importance that he attached to fostering the academic careers of young faculty members, THE R. GAURTH HANSEN LECTURE has been established to recognize outstanding young scientists who received their undergraduate or graduate training in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University and are now in the early stages of a promising academic career.
Recipients of the R. Gaurth Hansen award will have received their undergraduate research training, graduate research training, or graduate training leading to the Ph.D. in a program with which the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology faculty mentor is affiliated. Recipients will currently be within their first six years of a tenure track appointment (Assistant Professor or equivalent) at an established academic institution, or in the equivalent early stages of a career in a non-academic setting. In either case, the selected candidates will have a record of excellence in accomplishments thus far, and demonstrated qualities that provide a basis for expecting future outstanding performance in their chosen career.
The R. Gaurth Hansen Memorial Alumnus Awardee presents a seminar and is honored at the department's annual award's banquet in odd numbered years.
Dr. Richard U. and Claire M. Byerrum Endowed Fellowship
Richard U. Byerrum was the first dean of the College of Natural Science at MSU, serving from 1962 until 1986. He was also an instructor and mentor for more than 40 years. Dr. Byerrum died September 28, 2008, at the age of 88.
Byerrum was raised in Warrenville, Illinois, and earned an A.B. in zoology and chemistry from Wabash College in 1942. He earned his Ph.D in biochemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 1947 and an honorary doctorate from Wabash College in 1967.
A graduate student in biochemistry at the University of Illinois during World War II, Dick took a leave of his studies to become an employee of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. He worked in a Corps' laboratory at the University of Chicago.
Claire Somers, a business major, commuted to the University of Illinois from her nearby hometown and was a student worker in the Chemistry Department. She and Dick were married in Champaign on April 3, 1945.
After their wedding, Dr. Byerrum secured a position for Claire as a secretary for the Manhattan Project. The war ended that summer. A portion of Byerrum's Army work could be incorporated into his dissertation research, so he received his Ph.D. From the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1947.
Following his doctoral studies, Dick sought an academic career. Faculty at both Illinois and Chicago recognized the strong potential of Michigan State, and Dick and Claire felt that East Lansing would be a nice place to bring up a family.
Byerrum joined the faculty at Michigan State College in 1947. His research dealt with plant metabolism and he had a lab in North Kedzie Hall as part of the chemistry department. He was appointed Assistant Provost in 1959, yet maintained his research lab and funding into the early 1970's. Dr. Byerrum authored Experimental Biochemistry in 1956 and served as author or co-author of more than 90 abstracts, articles, book chapters, and book reviews for professional journals. He held four patents.
Mrs. Claire Byerrum survives and has established the Dr. Richard U. and Claire M. Byerrum Endowed Fellowship to aide the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in attracting or retaining outstanding graduate students.