Distinguished Faculty Lecture: Robert A. Zimmermann
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Robert A. Zimmermann will present the third 2005-06 Distinguished Faculty Lecture. His lecture is titled, "A Molecular Biologist Returns to Nature."
Enthralled by nature as a child, Professor Zimmermann planned to be a field biologist studying birds or insects but in college he succumbed to the lure of emergent biophysics and molecular biology with their fascinating—though clearly reductionist—approaches to describing life. After many memorable years as a molecular biologist, he returns to a naturalist's viewpoint, asking how we can use our vast knowledge of the now-imperiled biosphere to ensure the survival of all creatures—from lowly beetles and algae to splendid gorillas, pandas and tigers—and see that they flourish in the long run.
Robert A. Zimmermann joined the university in 1973. He was an associate professor of microbiology in 1973-74 and then an associate professor of biochemistry from 1974-77. He has been a professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology since 1977, serving as department head from 1979-86. He has also been an adjunct professor in the chemistry department since 2001 and is the acting director of the chemistry-biology interface training program at UMass, a program he headed from 1995-2000. In addition, he was acting director of the graduate program in molecular and cellular biology at UMass from 1985-88. Professor Zimmerman was a visiting scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, in 1998; a visiting scholar at the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, in Paris, France, in 1990; and a visiting professor at Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan, in 1983. He earned his bachelor's degree in physics from Amherst College in 1959 and his doctorate in biophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964.
At the conclusion of his lecture, Professor Zimmermann will be presented with the Chancellor's Medal, the highest honor on campus.
A reception immediately follows the lecture.
Please note the location change for this event from the Mullins Center to the Goodell Building.
Directions & Parking
Goodell is located west of the campus pond and Old Chapel, and is easily identified by its portico with four white columns at the entrance. Public parking is available in the Campus Center parking garage or in Lot 32 across Mass. Ave. Handicapped parking is located on the north side of the building on Hicks Way.