Robert “Bob” Zimmermann passed away on May 9th, 2024 at the age of 86. Bob had a long tenure in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) department. He joined the faculty at UMass Amherst in 1973 having received his B.A. in Physics from Amherst College in 1959, his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1964 and having spent several years as a Research Fellow at Harvard University and the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
Bob served as BMB Department Head from 1979-1986 and was Director of the Molecular & Cellular Biology Graduate Program from 1985-1988. He was a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Society for Biological Chemists, the American Society for Microbiology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He spent several months as a temporary advisor to the World Health Organization.
Bob was a gifted researcher in the field of protein biosynthesis, with a special focus on the ribosome, the organelles that carry out protein synthesis in all living cells. His contributions include describing many structure and function aspects of the ribosome itself - especially binding of ribosomal RNA domains with ribosomal proteins – and the role of the ribosome as it mediates interaction of transfer RNA and messenger RNA at the protein synthesis reaction center. Key strategies included direct in vitro binding with molecular genetic variants and photochemical cross-linking of interacting partners. The results provided important insights into ribosome function in solution and foreshadowed and predicted the amazing details revealed by structural studies in recent years.
Bob spent time as a visiting scholar in both Japan and France, and made his way to Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, and Denmark to present his research as a guest speaker. He was fluent in Russian, having translated a Molecular Biology textbook from Russian back in 1971. His lab entertained sabbatical visitors from Germany, China, Japan, Denmark, Canada, and what was then referred to as the USSR. Bob retired in 2014 after 41 years of service to the university.
He will be remembered by his departmental colleagues as a good friend, a model professor, and a fair colleague who was willing to step up for just causes.