Paul D. Boyer biography
Date of birth : 1918-07-31
Date of death : -
Birthplace : Provo, Utah,U.S.
Nationality : American
Category : Science and Technology
Last modified : 2011-10-07
Credited as : Chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, ATP
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Paul Delos Boyer is an American biochemist and analytical chemist. He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research on the "enzymatic mechanism underlying the biosynthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)" (ATP synthase) with John E. Walker; the remainder of the Prize in that year was awarded to Danish chemist Jens Christian Skou for his discovery of the Na+/K+-ATPase.
American chemist Paul D. Boyer helped unravel the process by which adenosine triphosphate (ATP) drives cellular activities. His work explained the mechanism that leads to the ongoing synthesis of ATP, and showed in 1971 that ATP synthase exists in three forms, as a circular assembly in the mitochondrial membrane, an axle rod, and a cylinder at the axle's other end, inside the mitochondria. He hypothesized that hydrogen ions turn the circular assembly like a turnstile as they proceed through the mitochondrial membrane, turning both the axle and the cylinder. For his work explaining the mechanism by which living cells produce energy, Boyer shared the 1997 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Jens C. Skou and John E. Walker, who conducted related research.
Awards and honors:
Guggenheim Fellowship 1955
ACS Award in Enzyme Chemistry 1955
ASBMB William C. Rose Award 1989
Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1997 (with Jens C. Skou and John E. Walker)
Annual Review of Biochemistry Associate Editor, Editor (1963-89)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1968
American Chemical Society
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology President (1969-70)
Federation of American Scientists Board of Sponsors
National Academy of Sciences 1970
French Ancestry Maternal
German Ancestry Paternal
Huguenot Ancestry Maternal
Dutch Ancestry Paternal
