Devarajan (Dave) Thirumalai

Devarajan (Dave) Thirumalai, an Indian-born American physicist, is the Collie-Welch Reagents Professor in Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. His research spans equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, such as the transition from liquid to amorphous state, polymer-colloid interactions, and protein and RNA folding. He is known for his contributions to the theories of protein/RNA folding,[1][2] protein aggregation,[3] glasses (the Random First Order Transition – RFOT theory),[4][5] and biological machines.[6] He also does research in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs),[7] organization and dynamics of chromosome[8] and cell biophysics.[9] Prior to moving to the University of Texas at Austin, he was a distinguished university professor in the University of Maryland from 2010 to 2015.

Devarajan (Dave) Thirumalai
Born
India
Nationality American
EducationMSc (1977)
PhD Physical Chemistry (1982)
Alma materIndian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India
University of Minnesota
AwardsAlfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1986–1988)

Humboldt Research Award (2009)
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2009)
Fellow of the Biophysical Society (2014)
Fellow of the American Physical Society (2016)
Oesper Award (2018)
Irving Langmuir Prize (2019)

Hans Neurath Award (2019)
Scientific career
FieldsBiological Physics, Biophysics
InstitutionsThe University of Texas at Austin
ThesisEffective Potential Studies of Electron-Atom and Electron- Molecule Collisions (1982)
Doctoral advisorDonald G. Truhlar

Educational Background

Dave Thirumalai studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur where he earned a MSc degree (1977). He earned his doctorate degree in 1982 from the University of Minnesota under Donald G. Truhlar.

Academic career

After postdoctoral studies at the Columbia University in New York City, he joined University of Maryland as an assistant professor of physics in 1985. He is the founding director of the biophysics program in the University of Maryland. In 2016, he joined the University of Texas at Austin as the Collie-Welch Reagents Chair.[10]

Awards and honors
  • 1986–1988 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.
  • 1987–1992 Presidential Young Investigator Award.
  • 2009 Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists.
  • 2009 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
  • 2011 Honorary Senior Hans-Fisher Fellow.
  • 2014 Fellow of the Biophysical Society.
  • 2015 Fellow of the American Physical Society.[11]
  • 2016 Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Medal.
  • 2016 ACS Theoretical Chemistry Award.[12]
  • 2018 Oesper Award, Chemistry, University of Cincinnati.[13]
  • 2019 APS Award, Irving Langmuir Prize.[14]
  • 2019 Hans Neurath Award, Protein Society.[15]

References
  1. Peter G Wolynes; Jose N Onuchic; Dave Thirumalai (17 March 1995). "Navigating the folding routes". Science. 267 (5204): 1619–1620. Bibcode:1995Sci...267.1619W. doi:10.1126/science.7886447. PMID 7886447. S2CID 5199444.
  2. D Thirumalai; Changbong Hyeon (11 March 2005). "RNA and protein folding: common themes and variations". Biochemistry. 44 (13): 4957–4970. doi:10.1021/bi047314+. PMID 15794634.
  3. D Thirumalai; DK Klimov; RI Dima (11 April 2003). "Emerging ideas on the molecular basis of protein and peptide aggregation". Current Opinion in Structural Biology. 13 (2): 146–159. doi:10.1016/S0959-440X(03)00032-0. PMID 12727507.
  4. Theodore R Kirkpatrick; Devarajan Thirumalai; Peter G Wolynes (1 July 1989). "Scaling concepts for the dynamics of viscous liquids near an ideal glassy state". Physical Review A. 40 (2): 1045–1054. Bibcode:1989PhRvA..40.1045K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.40.1045. PMID 9902230.
  5. T. R. Kirkpatrick; D. Thirumalai (March 2015). "Colloquium: Random first order transition theory concepts in biology and physics". Reviews of Modern Physics. 87 (1): 183–209. Bibcode:2015RvMP...87..183K. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.87.183. S2CID 123937625.
  6. Mauro L Mugnai; Changbong Hyeon; Michael Hinczewski; D Thirumalai (7 April 2020). "Theoretical perspectives on biological machines". Reviews of Modern Physics. 92 (2): 025001. arXiv:1908.11323. Bibcode:2020RvMP...92b5001M. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.92.025001. S2CID 201671124.
  7. Upayan Baul; Debayan Chakraborty; Mauro L Mugnai; John E Straub; Dave Thirumalai (26 March 2019). "Sequence effects on size, shape, and structural heterogeneity in intrinsically disordered proteins". The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 123 (16): 3462-3474. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcb.9b02575. PMC 6920032. PMID 30913885.
  8. Guang Shi; Lei Liu; Changbong Hyeon; Dave Thirumalai (2018). "Interphase human chromosome exhibits out of equilibrium glassy dynamics". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 3161. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.3161S. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05606-6. PMC 6082855. PMID 30089831.
  9. Abdul N Malmi-Kakkada; Xin Li; Himadri S Samanta; Sumit Sinha; Dave Thirumalai (27 April 2018). "Cell growth rate dictates the onset of glass to fluidlike transition and long time superdiffusion in an evolving cell colony". Physical Review X. 8 (2): 021025. Bibcode:2018PhRvX...8b1025M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.8.021025.
  10. "Dave Thirumalai to Chair Department of Chemistry".
  11. "2015 APS Fellow Archive".
  12. "2016 Physical Chemistry Division Awards".
  13. "Dave Thirumalai Receives 2018 Oesper Award".
  14. "Dave Thirumalai Awarded Langmuir Prize in Chemical Physics".
  15. "Dave Thirumalai Receives the Hans Neurath Award".


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