| 1 | Name: | Dr. Emil L. Smith | |
| Institution: | University of California, Los Angeles | ||
| Year Elected: | 1973 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1911 | ||
| Death Date: | May 31, 2009 | ||
Emil L. Smith is Professor of Biological Chemistry Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he has served on the faculty of the School of Medicine since 1963. One of the world's leading authorities on the amino acid sequences of proteins and on biochemical evolution, his research has dealt with photosynthesis; chlorophyll; physiology of the visual process; proteolytic enzymes; glycoproteins; cytochrome; histones; and glutamate dehydrogenases. An outstanding leader in biochemical research and a man of broad scientific interests, Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1937. He subsequently worked as a Guggenheim Fellow at Cambridge and Yale and as a research associate at the Rockefeller Institute (1940-42) and as a biophysicist at E.R. Squibb & Company's Biological Laboratories (1942-46) before joining the faculty of the University of Utah (1946-63). From 1959-62 Dr. Smith also served as chairman of the United States National Committee on Biochemistry. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he is the author (with A. White, P. Handler and others) of Principles of Biochemistry, for seven editions (1954-83) one of the leading textbooks in the field. | |||