Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

Biologist Sauer Named to Whitehead Chair

GENETIC STUDIES
Biologist Sauer Named
To Whitehead Chair

Robert T. Sauer, widely respected for his contributions in basic 
research and education in the biological sciences, has been named the 
Whitehead Professor of Biochemistry. Dr. Sauer is associate head of the 
Department of Biology.

The Whitehead Professorship was established by MIT in 1982 in 
recognition of the affiliation between MIT and the Whitehead Institute 
for Biomedical Research, which was established by Edwin C. Whitehead.

The appointment was announced by Provost Mark S. Wrighton.

Professor Sauer received his BA from Amherst College in 1972 and his PhD 
from Harvard University in 1979. He joined the MIT faculty in 1978. Dr. 
Sauer is the author or coauthor of more than 100 publications and is a 
recognized leader in one of the most fundamental areas of modern 
biology.

Professor Sauer and his coworkers apply the tools of molecular genetics, 
biochemistry and biophysics to study the structure and function of 
proteins involved in the regulation of gene expression. These studies 
have shaped the way that protein-DNA interactions are viewed by other 
experts in the field and have begun to unravel the rules by which the 
one-dimensional information in protein sequences determines protein 
shape and stability.