Steven G. Boxer
| Address | Education | Honors | Employment | Named Lectureships | Consulting | Editorial Advisory Boards | Personal Information | Current Research Interests
- Steven G. Boxer
- Department of Chemistry
- Stanford University
- Stanford, California 94305
- (650) 723-4482
- Fax: (650)723-4817
- E-mail: SBoxer@Stanford.edu
- URL: http://www.stanford.edu/group/boxer/
Address
Education
- University of Chicago
- Degree: Ph.D. December 1976
- Field: Physical and Physical-organic Chemistry
- Research Advisor: Professor Gerhard L. Closs
- Tufts University
- Degree: B.S. (honors-June 1969)
- Major: Chemistry
Honors
- Atomic Energy Commission Pre-doctoral Fellow (1972-1976)
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1979-1983)
- Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Fellow (1980-1985)
- Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching (1982)
- Presidential Young Investigator Award (1984-1989)
- American Society for Photobiology Research Award (1992)
- Five-College Lecturer in Chemistry (1993)
- NIH MERIT Award (1994-2004)
- American Chemical Society Arthur Cope Scholar Award (1995)
- Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1997)
- Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1997)
- Fellow, Biophysical Society (2007)
- Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy (2008)
- Member, National Academy of Sciences(2008)
Employment
| June 2000 to present | Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry |
| September 1988 to 1999 | Chair, Stanford Biophysics Program |
| September 1986 to present | Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University |
| September 1982 to August 1986 | Associate Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University |
| December 1976 to August 1982 | Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University |
Named Lectureships
Moses Gomberg Lecture, University of Michigan, May 2009
The James D. and Julia P. Morrison Lecture, Carleton College, April 2008
Hirschmann Lectures, University of Pennsylvania, March 2008
Craig Lecturer, Research School of Chemistry, Canberra, November 2007
Max Tishler Award Lecturer, Tufts University, March 2007
J. Clarence Karcher Lecturer, University of Oklahoma, March 2006
Henry Bull Lecturer in Biophysics, University of Iowa, April 2004
ICI Distinguished Lecturer, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, October 2003
Merck Lecturer, University of California, San Diego, May 2002
Ehrenfest Colloquium, University of Leiden, May 2001
1998 H. Willard Davis Lecture, University of South Carolina, Columbia South Carolina, March 1998.
Five-College Lecturer in Chemistry, Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts, April, 1993.
Physical Sciences Colloquium, IBM J. T. Watson Research Laboratories, Yorktown Heights, New York, October, 1990.
Dr. George W. Raiziss Biochemical Rounds, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, April, 1987.
Weissberger-Williams Lecturer, Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York, March, 1988
Ephriam and Wilma Shaw Roseman Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, November, 1987.
Consulting
- Current:
- Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (2005-)
- Scientific advisory board, Synamem
- Scientific advisory board, Applied Nanosystems, B.V.
- Science advisory board, National Center for Space Biological Technologies (2004-)
- Former:
- External Advisory Board, CSEM-MRSEC Caltech (2001-2005)
- Scientific Review Board, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1998-2006)
- Scientific Review Board, Member NIH Study Section, BBCB (2000-2004)
- Scientific advisory board, MCM Laboratories
- Scientific advisory board, Salutar, Inc.
- Scientific advisory board, Pharmacyclics, Inc.
- Scientific advisory board, Signature BioSciences, Inc.
- Scientific advisory board, ACLARA BioSciences, Inc.
- Consultant, Darwin Molecular Technology, Inc.
- Consultant, Polaroid
Editorial Advisory Boards
- Chemical Physics (1992-)
- Journal of Physical Chemistry (1994-2005)
- Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (2002-2004)
- Advanced Functional Materials (2001-2004)
- Accounts of Chemical Research (1997-2000)
- Annual Reviews of Biophysics and Biomolecular Structure (1994-2001)
- Biophysical Journal (1994-2000)
- Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry (1996-1998)
- Spectrochemica Acta (1994-2000)
Personal Information
Married to Linda M. Boxer, Chief, of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine; Children: Lisa and George
Current Research Interests
My laboratory investigates the structure and function of biological systems using many tools and methods, always with a strong physical perspective. Three interconnected themes are being pursued.
First, we have a long-standing interest in the mechanism of light-driven long-distance electron transfer in photosynthetic reaction centers, one of the fastest known reactions. This is being studied by femtosecond fluorescence and transient absorption spectroscopy, manipulation in electric fields, site-specific mutagenesis and some novel types of Stark spectroscopy we have developed and applied to many types of molecules. Related methods are also being used to probe excited state dynamics and electronic structure in variants of green fluorescent protein (GFP), widely used in cell biology.
Second, we are broadly interested in electrostatics in proteins and how electrostatics affects function. Our current work uses probes whose sensitivity to electric fields can be calibrated by Stark spectroscopy. Vibrational Stark experiments are particularly useful as they provide a calibration for mapping electrostatic fields in proteins. Probes have also been developed that can measure the time-dependent solvation of charges at different positions in proteins, a key aspect of protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions and catalysis.
A third major area of interest involves the use of supported lipid bilayers as mimics for cell surfaces and as tools in biotechnology. A broad vision is to engineer interfaces between hard surfaces and soft materials, ultimately leading to sophisticated biocompatible interfaces that can be used to control, interrogate or organize complex living systems. We have developed methods for partitioning and manipulating the composition and organization of these unique self-assembled systems. Recent work addresses the formation of domains and protein association with these domains, interactions of DNA, proteins and cells with supported bilayers, and the mechanism of vesicle fusion, both to solid supports and mediated by proteins. This work has motivated the development of advanced optical microscopy methods for probing the interface between membranes on solid supports and cell membranes, potentially with nm vertical resolution. A novel type of imaging mass spectrometry is being applied to characterize the lateral organization and composition of bilayers and associated membranes with 50 nm resolution.
Please visit our web site <http://www.stanford.edu/group/boxer/> for more information.
Updated April 11, 2008