Susan Marqusee
University of California, Berkeley
Touring the Energy Landscape
Monday, February 22, 8:00 PM
Philadelphia Convention Center
Being named the 2027 Biophysical Society Lecturer is the highest annual award bestowed by the Biophysical Society. In addition to presenting the Annual Biophysical Society Lecture, the recipient provides a molecule or figure that depicts his/her research. That figure is used in the background design for that year’s Annual Meeting print and web announcements.
Susan Marquee, Distinguished Professor of Molecular & Cell Biology and Chemistry at the University of California,is a molecular biophysicist widely recognized for her experimental work in protein folding and dynamics, particularly the development of innovative hydrogen-exchange approaches and pioneering studies on the mechanical manipulation of single protein molecules. From 2023-2026, Marqusee served as Assistant Director at the National Science Foundation and from 2009-2020 as the Director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at Berkeley. She received her AB in Physics and Chemistry from Cornell University in 1982 and her MD and PhD from Stanford University in 1990, followed by post-doctoral training at MIT. She is a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Marqusee’s connection to the Biophysical Society spans more than four decades; her first scientific meeting was the 1985 BPS meeting in San Francisco CA, and she has remained active ever since. A Fellow of the Biophysical Society and recipient of the Society’s Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award, she has served on the BPS Council and co-chaired the 63rd Annual Meeting in 2019.
About the Image: The amino acid sequence of a protein encodes more than the native three-dimensional structure; it encodes the entire energy landscape – an ensemble of conformations whose energetics and dynamics are finely tuned for folding, binding and activity. (image credit: Shawn Costello, Christina Stephens, Michelle Garcia)