| 1 | Name: | Dr. Alexander Rich | |
| Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | ||
| Year Elected: | 1980 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1924 | ||
| Death Date: | April 27, 2015 | ||
Alexander Rich was a preeminent researcher in structural molecular biology. He joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in1958, and he had been the William Thompson Sedgwick Professor of Biophysics. Best known for the discovery of left-handed DNA, or Z-DNA, and the three-dimensional structure of transfer RNA, he was also one of the leading workers in the determination of structure and function of Z-DNA binding proteins by x-ray crystallographic and other methods. Dr. Rich received his M.D. from Harvard University Medical School in 1949 and was a founder and director of the pharmaceutical development company Alkermes, Inc. He was awarded the 1995 U.S. National Medal of Science, the 2000 Bower Award for Excellence in Science and the 2009 Welch Award in Chemistry, among other honors, and he has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1980. Dr. Rich died April 27, 2015, at the age of 90, in Boston, Massachusetts. | |||