Speaker biographies

Keynote speakers

Plate1 Steve Chapman

Steve Chapman received his PhD from the University of Newcastle in 1983. After a NATO fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he returned to the UK to take up a lectureship at the University of Edinburgh. In 1996 he was appointed to a chair of Biological Inorganic Chemistry and in 2000 he became Head of School of Chemistry. His research interests include; metalloproteins, biological electron transfer, molecular enzymology and protein engineering. For more information on his research please visit his website at: http://www.chem.ed.ac.uk/chapman/

Plate2 Amy C. Rosenzweig

Amy C. Rosenzweig a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduated from Amherst College in 1988 with a BA in Chemistry. She received her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from MIT in 1994. As part of her graduate work with Stephen J. Lippard, she solved the crystal structure of the soluble methane monooxygenase hydroxylase. After an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, she joined the faculty of Northwestern University in 1997. A 2003 MacArthur Fellow, she is currently the Irving M. Klotz Research Professor of Chemistry.

Plate3 Fraser A. Armstrong

Fraser A. Armstrong obtained his PhD from the University of Leeds in 1978. After holding several postdoctoral positions, he was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship at the University of Oxford in 1983. In 1989 he joined the faculty at the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, before returning to Oxford in 1993, where he is now Professor of Chemistry and a Fellow of St John's College. His interests are in biological redox chemistry, in particular, the application of dynamic electrochemistry to electron transfer reactions and catalysis in proteins.

Plate4 Ralf R. Mendel

Ralf R. Mendel was born in 1952 in Berlin, Germany, and studied biochemistry at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He obtained his PhD degree from Martin-Luther-University Halle in 1979 and habilitated in 1985 (Dr. sc. nat.). In 1992 he became Full Professor of Botany at the (now) Institute of Plant Biology of the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. Since 1993 he is director of this institute and served from 1997–1999 as Dean of biosciences at his university. His research is focused on the biochemistry and cell biology of molybdenum in plants and humans.

Speakers

Plate5 Brian Hoffman

Brian Hoffman was born in Chicago, as an undergraduate went to the University of Chicago, wandered to the west coast for a PhD from Caltech under the direction of Harden McConnell, and thence to the east coast for a postdoctoral year with Alex Rich at MIT. From there he joined the faculty at Northwestern University, where he is Professor in the Chemistry and BMBCB departments. His other research interests include: electron transfer within protein complexes; the preparation/characterization of porphyrazine macrocycles. He and his wife Janet are collectors of daughters (four) and grandkids (six current).

Plate6 Jeremy Harvey

Jeremy Harvey obtained his BSc and PhD (with Heinz Viehe, 1995) in organic chemistry in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium before converting into a computational chemist during postdoctoral stays with Helmut Schwarz (Berlin, 1995–1997) and Benny Gerber (Jerusalem, 1997–1998) and taking up a lectureship in Bristol in 1999. He is now an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow and Reader, and is interested in using computational methods to understand chemical reactivity, especially in bioinorganic and organometallic systems.

Plate7 Radu Silaghi-Dumitrescu

Radu Silaghi-Dumitrescu was born in 1974. and received his BSc and MSc degrees from the “Babes-Bolyai” University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He obtained a PhD from the University of Georgia in Athens, GA (with Prof. Donald M. Kurtz, Jr.), and another one from the “Babes-Bolyai” University (with Prof. Ionel Haiduc). He is a post-doc at the University of Essex, working on a blood substitutes project with Prof. Chris Cooper. His research interests also include biocatalysis and small molecule activation by metalloproteins.

Plate8 Chris Cooper

Chris Cooper obtained a BSc in Biochemistry (Bristol, 1985) and a PhD in Biophysics (Guelph, Canada, 1989). Post-doctoral research (metalloprotein spectroscopy) at King's College London was followed by a MRC Research Fellowship (in vivo spectroscopy) at University College London. In 1995 he received a Wellcome University Award at the University of Essex where he was awarded a personal chair in 1999. His current research interests focus on the physiological and pathological implications of the interactions of small ligands with metalloproteins. He is a committee member of the UK Biophysical Society, sits on the Biochemical Society's Executive Committee and is currently Chair of the Inorganic Biochemistry Discussion Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Plate9 Stuart Ferguson

Stuart Ferguson is Professor of Biochemistry at Oxford University and William R. Miller Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He has research interests in bioenergetics, specifically bacterial respiration and metalloprotein chemistry, and received the Keilin Medal of the Biochemical Society in 2001 for his contribution to the field.

Plate10 Harriet Seward

Harriet Seward received her PhD in Biochemistry and spectroscopy from the University of East Anglia in 1999. She then undertook Postdoctoral studies on multiheme cytochromes with Professors Andrew Thomson and David Richardson (1999–2003). In 2004, she moved to the University of Leicester to research spectroscopy and enzymology of P450 redox systems from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other bacterial species.

Plate11 Dennis J. Stuehr

Dennis J. Stuehr received a BSc in Chemistry from Bowling Green State University in 1980, and a PhD in Biochemical Toxicology from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987. He did postdoctoral training at Cornell University Medical College, joined its faculty in 1989, and then moved to The Cleveland Clinic in 1991, where he is now a Professor in the Department of Pathobiology. Dr Stuehr's research is focused on the structure, catalytic mechanisms, and regulation of flavo-heme enzymes such as the NO synthases and NADPH oxidases, as well as bacterial NO synthase-like heme proteins.

Plate12 Gary Silkstone

Gary Silkstone graduated (1997) and obtained his PhD (2001) in biophysics at the University of Essex, UK. He is currently working as a post-doctoral research officer at the University of Essex. His research interests include inter-protein electron transfer and ligand binding dynamics in haem protein systems.Katherine Brown is a Reader in Biochemistry in the Division of Cell and Molecular Biology and the Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection at Imperial College London. Her current interests include studies aimed at understanding structure–function relationships in proteins involved in infectious diseases. Dr Brown obtained undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in crystallography from the University of London. She joined the staff at Imperial College London in 1992.

Plate13 Andrew Thomson

Andrew Thomson obtained his DPhil degree at Oxford with Professor R. J. P. Williams, FRS. At the University of East Anglia, Norwich, he established, with Colin Greenwood, the interdisciplinary Centre for Metalloprotein Spectroscopy and Biology. He pioneered the application of magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy to study heme, Fe–S, and copper centres in enzymes particularly those of the bacterial denitrifying pathway. Recently, his group has begun applying pulsed W- and X-band EPR spectroscopy to the study of nitroxide spin-labelled metalloproteins, a novel way of spin mapping of proteins.

Plate14 Isabel Bento

Isabel Bento graduated in Biochemistry at the University of Coimbra in 1994 and she obtained her PhD in Biochemistry, in ITQB, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, in 2003. She is currently undertaking postdoctoral research at Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológia, with Professor Peter Lindley and Dr Ligia Martins, and the main objective of her research is to try to understand the molecular basis for the enzymatic mechanism of multicopper oxidases using bacterial laccases as model systems. Presently she is also responsible for the X-ray small molecule service at ITQB in Oeiras.

Plate15 Christopher Dennison

Christopher Dennison received his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne working with Prof. A. G. Sykes, FRS and Prof. W. McFarlane in 1994. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. G. W. Canters at Leiden University until 1997 when he moved to University College Dublin as a lecturer. In 1999 he moved to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and in 2004 moved to his current position in the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences (Medical School, University of Newcastle upon Tyne).

Plate16 Shinobu Itoh

Shinobu Itoh received his Doctor's degree in engineering from Osaka University in 1986. Then, he joined Professor Ohshiro's group at Osaka University as Assistant Professor. During that period, he spent a year (1987–1988) as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Teddy G. Traylor's group at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In 1994, he was promoted to Associate Professor and worked with Professor Shunichi Fukuzumi at Osaka University, when he started copper/dioxygen chemistry. In 1999, he moved to Osaka City University as a full Professor. His current research interest is focused on chemical modeling and application of novel active sites in biological systems.

Plate17 Martin C. Feiters

Martin C. Feiters was born in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1955 and studied chemistry at the University of Utrecht (1973–1979). He took a PhD in bioorganic chemistry in 1984 with J. F. G. Vliegenthart (Utrecht) and B. G. Malmström (Gothenburg) and did post-doctoral work in X-ray absorption spectroscopy with S. S. Hasnain (Daresbury) and C. D. Garner (then Manchester) followed by contract research for Heineken. In 1989 he was appointed associate professor in bioorganic chemistry at the Radboud University Nijmegen. His current research interests are supramolecular catalysis, comparing biological and biomimetic catalysts, and self-assembly processes, such as those leading to lipid–DNA complexes that can be applied in gene transfection.

Plate18 Patrick Gamez

Patrick Gamez was educated at the University of Lyon where he received his PhD in 1995, and undertook post-doctoral work in the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung and at the University of Strasbourg. In 1999, he joined the group of Professor Jan Reedijk at Leiden University. His research interests include copper biomimetics and oxidation catalysis, supramolecular functional materials based on 1,3,5-triazine derivatives, and spin crossover compounds.

Plate19 Juan C. Fontecilla-Camps

Juan C. Fontecilla-Camps received his undergraduate training at the University of Concepcion, Chile, and his PhD degree in protein crystallography at the University of Alabama in Birmingham under the supervision of Charles E. Bugg in 1980. Subsequently, he moved to Marseilles, France, where he became group leader and then head of a protein crystallography laboratory established by the CNRS and the University of Aix-Marseilles. In 1991, he took a job with the French Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA) in Grenoble. After having worked on the crystal structure of animal toxins, in 1993 he turned his attention to the structural biology of hydrogenases and other metalloenzymes. He and his group have solved the structures of NiFe and Fe-only hydrogenases, pyruvate-ferredoxin oxidoreductase and, very recently, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-Coenzyme A synthase. In 2000, he was awarded the medal of the European section of the International Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry for his work on hydrogenases. He is also “Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques”.

Plate20 Michael Hall

Michael Hall was born in Pennsylvania and graduated from Juniata College. After completing a PhD with Richard Fenske at the University of Wisconsin, and an AEI postdoctoral fellowship in ab initio quantum chemistry with Ian Hillier at the University of Manchester (UK), he joined the faculty of Texas A & M University in 1975. He currently directs the Laboratory for Molecular Simulation and serves as Executive Associate Dean for the College of Science. In 2004 he was named Davidson Professor of Science. His research interests are primarily directed toward understanding chemical structures and reactions through the application of state-of-the-art quantum calculations.

Plate21 Ulrich Ermler

Ulrich Ermler studied chemistry at the University of Freiburg and received his PhD in 1990. After an EMBO fellowship at the Biomedical Center in Uppsala he moved to the Max-Planck-Institute in Frankfurt/Main for postdoctorial research. He became a group leader in 1995. His research interests include structural studies of enzymes of the methanogenic, methylotrophic, sulfate-reducing and other degradation pathways.

Plate22 Stephen Sproules

Stephen Sproules was born in Melbourne, Australia, and majored in chemistry at the University of Melbourne. He completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours in 2001 under the supervision of Assoc./Prof. Charles Young and is currently completing his PhD at the University of Melbourne. His research is focused on the synthesis and characterisation of novel chalcogenido dithiolenes as electronic models for the active sites of molybdenum and tungsten enzymes.

Plate23 Hideki Sugimoto

Hideki Sugimoto completed a PhD at the Hokkaido University under the supervision of Professor Y. Sasaki in 1997. His PhD work was devoted to the chemistry of Re compounds. He undertook postdoctoral research at the Institute for Molecular Science for two years. He joined Osaka City University as Assistant Professor in 1999 and is now a Lecturer. A team of active research students now maintains his research on the coordination chemistry of Mo and W compounds to understand their roles in biological systems.

Plate24 Ebbe Nordlander

Ebbe Nordlander was born in Uppsala, Sweden, and obtained his primary and secondary education in Örebro, Sweden. He received his BSc in Chemistry from Beloit College, Wisconsin, USA, in 1986 and carried out his postgraduate studies at Cambridge University under the supervision of Brian F. G. Johnson and Jack Lewis. After obtaining his PhD degree in 1990, he carried out postdoctoral research for two years with Richard H. Holm at Harvard University. In 1992, he took up a position at Lund University, Sweden, where he is now a Senior Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry. His research interests concern both bioinorganic (bio-coordination) chemistry and organometallic chemistry, with a focus on catalysis.

Plate25 Ian Hillier

Ian Hillier is Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Manchester. He has published over 400 papers using theoretical and computational methods to understand the relationship between molecular structure, physical properties, and chemical reactivity for a wide range of chemical systems, with particular emphasis on solvation, and protein structure and function. In recognition of his work he received the Royal Society of Chemistry 1998 Award in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry.

Plate26 Erkan Karakas

Erkan Karakas was born in 1979. He received his BS degree in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Middle East Technical University in Turkey. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Dr Caroline Kisker's laboratory at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His projects include the structural characterization of sulfite oxidase and prokaryotic nucleotide excision repair enzymes.

Plate27 Julea Butt

Julea Butt graduated from Oxford in 1989 and gained her PhD in 1993 at the University of California, Irvine under the supervision of Fraser Armstrong. She then pursued post-doctoral research with Richard Klausner (National Institutes of Health) and Fred Hagen (Wageningen, NL). In 1997 she returned to the UK as a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow at the University of East Anglia, Norwich where she is now a faculty member of the School of Biological Sciences and School of Chemical Sciences and Pharmacy.

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