Professor Ken Dill will receive the 2022-23 Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry, administered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Theoretical Chemistry Institute (TCI). Prof. Dill is a biophysicist who has contributed to theoretical and computational chemistry. He is currently the Louis and Beatrice Laufer Professor of Physics and Chemistry, and Director of the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology at Stony Brook University.
Professor Dill and his research group have significantly advanced our understanding of protein folding. He developed the 'HP lattice' (H hydrophobic; P polar) model of proteins. With it, he postulated a theoretical model that proteins fold on funnel shaped energy landscape and the hydrophobic interaction is a main driver. He has developed the zipping and assembly model to explain the fast folding of proteins. His group has pioneered the development of foldamers for many applications, including the use as antimicrobials. He has also made seminal advances in developing the Maximum Caliber principle to address fundamental problems in nonequilibrium statistical physics.
“He has made many important contributions in statistical mechanics and biophysics of proteins and cells”, says Professor and TCI Director Xuhui Huang. "By using cartoon pictures of funnels to represent rather complicated statistical-mechanical densities of states, his protein folding model gained wide recognition among not only theoreticians, but also experimentalists.”
TCI established the Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry in 1991 in response to a generous bequest from Professor Joseph O. Hirschfelder (1911-90) and his widow, Dr. Elizabeth S. Hirschfelder. Over the course of his 40-year career, Professor Hirschfelder established himself as a leader in teaching, research, and public service at the university and in the broader research community. The award commemorates his role as a pioneering member of the theoretical chemistry field, beginning in the late 1930s.
Prof. Dill will visit the UW-Madison Department of Chemistry to deliver two public lectures in 1435 Learning Studio Chemistry Building North Tower on September 19 and 20, 2022.