March
7, 2003 MIT
Chemist to Deliver Lucy W. Pickett Lecture
| 
Barbara
Imperiali |
Barbara Imperiali,
Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Chemistry and professor of
biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will deliver
the chemistry department's annual Lucy W. Pickett Lecture
Wednesday, March 12, at 8 pm in room 302 of the Reese Psychology
and Education Building. The title of her talk is "Chemistry
and Biology of Asparagine-Linked Protein Glycosylation."
Imperiali's highly interdisciplinary work is at the interface
between chemistry and biology, integrating organic synthesis,
state-of-the-art spectroscopic analysis, enzymology, protein biochemistry,
and molecular biology.
Her research focuses
on diverse aspects of protein structure, function, and design.
She is concerned with the molecular details of the enzyme-catalyzed
process of asparagine-linked protein glycosylation, as well as
the development of new chemical and biochemical tools that can
be implemented for the investigation of complex biochemical processes.
Imperiali is the recipient
of an A.P. Sloan Fellowship (1993), a Camille and Henry Dreyfus
Teacher-Scholar Award (1993), the American Chemical Society Arthur
C. Cope Scholar Award (1996), and the Caltech Feynman Prize for
Excellence in Teaching (1998). In 2001, she was inducted into
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The lecture is named for Lucy Weston Pickett '25, a distinguished
member of the MHC chemistry department from 1930 to 1968. Upon
her retirement, students, friends, and colleagues established
the lectureship in her name to honor outstanding women scientists.
Pickett was one of the first two MHC professors to be named Mary
Lyon Professor, a rank no longer used at the College. She also
held the title of Camille and Henry Dreyfus Chair in Chemistry.
She was the recipient of numerous fellowships, two of which led
to study abroad at the Royal Institute in London and the University
of Liege in Belgium. Her research in ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy
of organic molecules was supported by grants from the Office of
Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the Petroleum
Research Fund of the American Chemical Society, and other organizations.
In 1957, Pickett was among three MHC faculty members, two of them
alumnae, to receive the Francis P. Garvan Medal of the American
Chemical Society, an award that recognizes distinguished service
to chemistry by American women chemists. Pickett died November
23, 1997.
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