Maurice Bessman
Maurice “Moishe” Bessman was a distinguished biochemical enzymologist and a dedicated member of the Department of Biology in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University for over 50 years.
Bessman was highly regarded for his intellectual rigor, independence, and commitment to mentoring the next generation of scientists. His research focused on various aspects of biochemistry and enzymology, including the synthesis of nucleic acid derivatives and proteomics. A major highlight of his career was his work on the Nudix hydrolase family of enzymes, a large and widely distributed class of proteins.
Ludwig Brand
Ludwig “Lenny” Brand, a professor emeritus and academy professor in the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins University was a pioneering scientist and passionate educator, was a prominent member of the Johns Hopkins community for nearly five decades.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Brand graduated from Boston Public Latin School in 1951 before earning his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1955 and a PhD in Chemistry from Indiana University in 1960. He began his career as a research associate at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, from 1961 to 1963. In 1964, Brand joined the Johns Hopkins Department of Biology and the McCollum-Pratt Institute, where he would remain a key figure until his retirement in 2012.
Richard McCarty
Richard E. McCarty was dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences from 1999 to 2002 and a professor in the Department of Biology.
The renowned plant physiologist specialized in protein and membrane biochemistry, especially structure, regulation, and mechanisms of the chloroplast ATP synthase and the transport of ions across the inner membrane of the chloroplast envelope. When awarding him the Charles F. Kettering award in 1994, the American Society of Plant Physiologists called him a “central figure” since the 1960s in advances in the understanding of photosynthesis and photosynthetic energy conversion.
James Taylor
James Peter Taylor, the Ralph S. O’Connor Professor of Biology and Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), was a trailblazer in the fields of computational biology and genomics. Taylor made an impact as a scientist, teacher, and colleague, with appointments in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering. He helped develop the Galaxy platform for data analysis and worked with members of his lab to extend the platform to make large scale computational analysis more accessible and reproducible. His research also focused on understanding genomic and epigenomic regulation of gene transcription through integrated analysis, with the goal of achieving a complete understanding of the structure and function of genomes. He also developed a strategy to support the health of the Chesapeake Bay by detecting microorganisms in the Baltimore Harbor and monitoring their levels continuously using newly developed, portable, and rapid DNA sequencing technologies.
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