Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.
University of California, Berkeley
March 30, 1920 - July 23, 2007
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Scientific Discipline: Biochemistry Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1966)
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Daniel Koshland's research dramatically changed the understanding of enzymes and protein chemistry. His contributions included the "induced fit" theory of enzyme interaction, which posits that enzymes change shape as they react with other molecules. His research focused on understanding the catalytic power of enzymes and the biochemistry of Alzheimer's disease.
Koshland majored in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, before serving as a group leader, working to purify plutonium, in the Manhattan Project during World War II. He earned a PhD in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1949 and did his postdoctoral research at Harvard University. In 1951, Koshland moved to Brookhaven National Laboratory; he later held a joint appointment at Brookhaven and Rockefeller University. In 1965, he returned to Berkeley, where he served as head of the Department of Biochemistry and the Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Biology. Koshland was editor-in-chief of Science magazine from 1985 to 1995. He established the Academy’s Marian Koshland Science Museum in honor of his wife, Marian Koshland, a noted immunologist.
