Brian T. Chait Named Dreyfus Professor, Albert J. Libchaber Appointed Bronk Professor, Ralph Steinman Selected Kunkel Professor

The Rockefeller University has appointed three faculty members to named professorships: mass spectrometrist Brian T. Chait, D. Phil., is the new Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor, physicist Albert J. Libchaber, M.D., Ph.D., is the new Detlev W. Bronk Professor and immunologist Ralph Steinman, M.D., is the new Henry G. Kunkel Professor.

Chait directs the Laboratory for Mass Spectrometry and Gaseous Ion Chemistry, which undertakes research into the characterization of proteins and DNA. His laboratory also serves as the National Resource for the Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Macromolecules for the federal National Institutes of Health.

Libchaber heads the Experimental Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory. He is a member of the university’s Center for Studies in Physics and Biology, whose faculty explores the interface between physics and biomedical sciences such as cell biology, neurobiology, immunology and structural biology.

Steinman, head of the Cellular Physiology and Immunology Laboratory, investigates the role of immune system cells in diseases such as HIV infection and tuberculosis. A senior physician at the Rockefeller University Hospital, a 30-bed clinical research center, Steinman also co-directs the Rockefeller University-Cornell University M.D.-Ph.D. program that offers courses for students to earn both degrees.

Chait

Using mass spectrometers he designed and constructed, Chait converts substances into isolated molecules with electrical charges. Once in their new form, these molecules are accurately weighed and measured to reveal information about structure and behavior, which is vital for studies in biology and chemistry.

A native of South Africa, Chait earned a bachelor of science degree in natural sciences in 1969 and a bachelor of science degree (honors) in physics in 1970, both from the University of Cape Town. In 1976, he received a doctorate of philosophy in nuclear physics from the University of Oxford.

Chait is a member of the editorial boards of Analytical Chemistry, Protein Science and Reviews in Mass Spectrometry and served as an editor of Organic Mass Spectrometry.

Chait pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Manitoba. In 1979, he joined Rockefeller as a research associate, becoming an assistant professor in 1981, associate professor in 1985 and professor in 1991. He is the author or coauthor of more than 120 publications.

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation created the professorship Chait holds in 1986. The foundation, established by Camille Dreyfus in 1946 in honor of his brother Henry, makes grants for “the advancement of chemistry, chemical engineering and related sciences as a means of improving human relations and circumstances in the world.” In 1988, Frank Field, M.S., Ph.D., professor of chemistry, became the first Dreyfus Professor at Rockefeller. Field now is on the emeritus faculty at Rockefeller.

Libchaber

Libchaber investigates the physics of the growth, form and motion of internal cell structures. His also focuses on the change in the movement of fluids as they evolve from a streamlike flow to a chaotic, turbulent one.

A native of Paris, France, Libchaber received his bachelor degree in mathematics from the University of Paris in 1956 and an Ingénieur des Telecommunications from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Telecommunications in 1958. He earned a master of science degree in physics from the University of Illinois in 1959 and his doctoral degree from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1965.

During his career, Libchaber worked for the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the University of Pennsylvania, Bell Telephone Laboratory and Tohoku University in Japan. From 1983 to 1991, Libchaber served as professor at the University of Chicago, leaving to become a professor of physics at Princeton University in 1991. That year the NEC Research Institute in Princeton named him a fellow and, in 1993, he became the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at the university. He joined the Rockefeller faculty in 1994.

Among his many honors, Libchaber is a chevalier of two French organizations, the ordre national de la Legion d’Honneur and the Palmes Academiques. He also is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a corresponding member of the French Academy of Science and a former MacArthur fellow. In 1986, he received the Wolf Prize for studies of the onset of turbulence.

Author or coauthor of more than 120 publications, Libchaber is a member of the editorial board of Physica A and has served as the editor of Nonlinearity.

Libchaber’s new position honors the university’s first president, who served from 1953 to 1968. The institution created the position in 1972 and former Bronk Professors include the late Nobel laureate H. Keffer Hartline, M.D., Frank Brink, M.S., Ph.D., and Abraham Pais, M.D. Brink and Pais now are emeritus faculty at Rockefeller.

Steinman

Steinman is the co-discoverer of dendritic cells, which ensnare and present pieces of bacteria, viruses or parasites to the T cells that direct responses to either fight or tolerate such microorganisms

A native of Montreal, Quebec, Steinman earned a bachelor of science degree with first class honors in biochemistry from McGill University in 1963. At Harvard University Medical School, he pursued a predoctoral research fellowship in anatomy from 1965 to 1966 and then received his medical degree in 1968. After an internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Steinman completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Rockefeller in 1970. He became an assistant professor in 1972 and a professor in 1976.

Editor of The Journal of Experimental Medicine and assistant editor of The Journal of Immunologic Methods, Steinman served as an advisory editor for the journals Cellular Immunology, International Reviews of Cytology and Arthritis and Rheumatism. Steinman is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Society of Cell Biology and the American Association of Immunologists.

Steinman’s new professorship is named for the late Rockefeller immunologist, Henry G. Kunkel, who died in 1983. In 1985, the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust established the chair, held by the late Zanvil A. Cohn, M.D., from 1986 until his death in 1993.