Paul D. Boyer
Paul D. Boyer
Paul Delos Boyeris an American biochemist, analytical chemist, and a professor of chemistry at University of California Los Angeles. He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research on the "enzymatic mechanism underlying the biosynthesis of adenosine triphosphate"with John E. Walker, making Boyer the only Utah-born Nobel laureate; the remainder of the Prize in that year was awarded to Danish chemist Jens Christian Skou for his discovery of the Na+/K+-ATPase...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth31 July 1918
CountryUnited States of America
Her death contributed to my later interest in studying biochemistry, an interest that has not been fulfilled in the sense that my accomplishments remain more at the basic than the applied level.
This led to the discovery that long chain fatty acids would remarkably stabilize serum albumin to heat denaturation, and would even reverse the denaturation by heat or concentrated urea solutions.
The geographical isolation and lack of television made world happenings and problems seem remote.
The war project at Stanford was essentially completed, and I accepted an offer of an Assistant Professorship at the University of Minnesota, which had a good biochemistry department.
Fortunately, the Biochemistry Department at the University of Wisconsin in Madison was outstanding and far ahead of most others in the country.
Minnesota has generally competent and honest public officials, good support of the schools and cultural amenities, and an excellent state university.
A different type of education came when as a member of a medical corps in the National Guard I spent several weeks in a military camp in California.
I recall mother's tolerance when she allowed me, at an early age, to take off the hinges and doors of cupboards if I would put them back on.
The information exchanged and gained at scientific conferences and visits has been tremendously important for progress in my laboratory.
Mountain hikes instilled in me a life-long urge to get to the top of any inviting summit or peak.
It wasn't until late high school and early college that I gained enough size and skill to make me welcome on intramural basketball teams.
If our society continues to support basic research on how living organisms function, it is likely that my great grandchildren will be spared the agony of losing family members to most types of cancer.
Over and over, expanding scientific knowledge has shown religious claims to be false.
Family trips to Yellowstone and to what are now national parks in Southern Utah, driving the primitive roads and cars of that day, were real adventures.