Harry Gray is the Founding Director of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology. Through development of new methods for binding electron transfer-active metal complexes to the surface of proteins, he made a pioneering discovery that electrons can tunnel rapidly over long molecular distances in proteins. This work has opened the way for experimental and theoretical work that shed light on the mechanisms of electron flow through proteins that function in respiration and photosynthesis. He has made seminal contributions to the understanding of chemical bonding of metal complexes, mechanisms of inorganic reactions, spectroscopy, and magneto-chemistry of inorganic compounds. His recent work has focused on the production of solar fuels.
Scientific Awards, Honors and Memberships
1970 ACS Award in Pure Chemistry
1979 Tolman Award
1986 National Medal of Science
1990 AIC Gold Meda
1992 Priestley Medal
2000 Harvey Prize
2000 Foreign Member of the Royal Society
2004 The Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry
2004 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
2009 Welch Award
2012 Inducted into the Alpha Chi Sigma Hall of Fame
2013 Othmer Gold Medal for outstanding contribution to chemistry and science
Frederic M. Richards
Fred Richards was the first chairman of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry when it was created from the Yale Medical School Biochemistry department and the University Biophysics department in 1968. Fred was a protein biochemist par excellence and shaped the tone of the department with its strong dual emphasis on structural biology and molecular biology. The Richards lecture series was created even before Fred’s death in 2009.