GEORGE B. BENEDEK, Alfred
H. Caspary Professor of Physics and Biological Physics
Research Interests
The research of the Benedek group centers on phase transitions,
self-assembly and aggregation of several biological molecules. These
phenomena are of biological and medical interest because phase separation,
self-assembly and aggregation of biological molecules are known
to play a central role in several human diseases such as cataract,
Alzheimer's disease, and cholesterol gallstone formation. A combination
of experimental work, theoretical analysis, and computer simulations
is used to understand the connection between the basic interactions
amongst the molecules and the resulting condensed phases.
[top]
Biographical Sketch
Professor George B. Benedek received his Ph.D. in Physics from
Harvard University in 1953. He is now the Alfred H. Caspary Professor
of Physics and Biological Physics at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, and a member of the Faculty of the Harvard-MIT Division
of Health Sciences and Technology. An experimental physicist, he
has published over one hundred and sixty research papers in a variety
of fields including high pressure physics, nuclear magnetic resonance,
quasielastic light scattering spectroscopy, phase transitions and
critical phenomena in ferromagnets, simple fluids, micelles and
microemulsions. His recent work focuses on the connection between
aggregation, phase separation and self-assembly of biological macromolecules
and cataract disease, Alzheimer's disease, and cholesterol gallstone
formation.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute
of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and is a Fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded
the American Physical Society's Irving Langmuir Prize in Chemical
Physics, and the Proctor Medal of the Association for Research in
Vision and Ophthalmology for his work on the theory of transparency
of the cornea and the lens.
[top]
|
