Amy Rosenzweig, a professor of biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, and chemistry at Northwestern University, will present the 2010/2011 Ernest C. Pollard Lecture at 4 p.m. on Monday, March 14, in 101 Althouse Laboratory on Penn State's University Park campus. The free public lecture is titled "Biological Methane Oxidation."
A member of Northwestern University's faculty since 1997, Rosenzweig is renowned for her research on proteins that deliver metals to living cells -- work that may one day lead to better treatments for Menkes syndrome, Wilson's disease, and Lou Gehrig's disease. The goal of her research program is to understand metalloprotein function on the molecular level by using X-ray crystallographic, biophysical, and biochemical techniques. Projects in her laboratory are divided into two areas, metalloenzymes and metal-trafficking proteins, with an increasing focus on structural characterization of integral-membrane proteins.
Rosenzweig earned a doctoral degree in inorganic chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994 and a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Amherst College in 1988. She received the prestigious MacArthur "genius" grant in 2003, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award in 2001, and the Amherst's Pryde Award in 1995. Rosenzweig is not only a pioneer in structural and mechanistic biochemistry; she also cofounded Amherst's women's ice hockey team.
The Ernest C. Pollard Lecture is named in honor of the professor of physics who taught at Penn State from 1961 to 1971 and founded the Department of Biophysics. In 1979, the Department of Biophysics merged with the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry to form the present Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. For more information or access assistance, contact Tamara Housel at 814-865-3072.