Hess

For 55 years, biophysicist George Hess has been teaching, running a research lab and mentoring students. On April 18, colleagues will celebrate his work and career with an academic seminar.

Hess, professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular and cell biology in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, will be the guest of honor at the 4 p.m. seminar in G10 Biotech. The featured speaker will be Peter Kim '79, a former undergraduate student of Hess' and president of Merck Research Laboratories, who will speak on "Improving Human Health Through Translational Research."

Kim earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1985 at Stanford University. Before his appointment at Merck, he was a Whitehead fellow, a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

The day's events will include a 5 p.m. reception in Biotech. For more information visit http://events.cornell.edu/event/biophysicsmbg_special_wednesday_seminar.

Hess' long research career focused first on how soluble enzymes catalyze rapid reactions, and then on investigating the structure and function of neurotransmitter receptors, membrane-bound proteins that control and integrate communication between the cells of the nervous system. Malfunction of these receptors is the key to many nervous system diseases.

Under his leadership, Hess' group has developed new techniques and chemical probes to investigate membrane-bound proteins, including laser-pulse photolysis method and light-activated neurotransmitters that allow neurotransmitter receptors in cells to be investigated in the submillisecond time domain. The group is showing how the mechanisms of the receptors are affected by therapeutic and abused drugs or by epilepsy-linked mutations, and they are identifying compounds that correct the receptor malfunction.

Hess is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the Biophysics Society, the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been a John S. Guggenheim fellow, a Fulbright senior research scholar, a special fellow at the National Institutes of Health, a Fogarty scholar and a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Award.

He has been a visiting fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge and Yale University; a visiting professor at MIT and the Universities of Arizona, Hawaii and Pennsylvania; a Naito Lecturer, a Wellcome Visiting Professor, and has twice been a U.S. Department of State cultural exchange professor in Europe. He has served on the Advisory Board of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience in Puerto Rico, and has twice received Outstanding Educator Recognition by a Cornell Merrill Presidential Scholar.

Hess' son, Peter Hess '79, is an associate professor of biological and environmental engineering, and his daughter-in-law, Natalie Mahowald, is an associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences.