William Konigsberg
Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Bill Konigsberg, B.Sci. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Ph.D. Columbia University, faculty member at Yale since 1964: You are a distinguished scientist, who has made significant contributions to the field of biochemistry, particularly in the area of enzyme kinetics.
Your research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of DNA replication, the process by which DNA is copied during cell division. One of your major contributions has been the discovery of the processivity factor of DNA polymerase, a protein that helps to hold in place the enzyme responsible for DNA synthesis as it moves along the DNA strand. This factor is essential for efficient DNA replication and repair, and your research has helped to shed light on its structure and function.
Your research has also provided important insights into the mechanisms underlying DNA replication and repair, which have broad implications for our understanding of how hereditary mechanisms maintain the information in our genes. By relating structure to function, your studies have been important not only for understanding how the integrity of the genome is preserved but also for improving methods of DNA sequencing.
You and your colleagues have also made important contributions to our understanding of the regulation of DNA replication by identifying several proteins that interact with the DNA polymerase and modulate its activity. Your investigation of the ways in which these proteins are regulated in response to changes in the cell cycle or other environmental cues has moved the understanding of this field forward. You also have advanced the understanding of blood clotting by studying a key mechanism in its initiation.
You have quite a personal history. From an early age you were prodigiously devoted to chemical research. As an experiment, you made your own sunscreen and in due course developed a hand lotion. Later, at a dinner party, the CEO of the Jergens Company tried your lotion. Thinking that it was better than his own brand, he acquired the formula, offering you enough money to put you through RPI. And what did he name your lotion? Lubriderm!
Sometimes your experimentations had national security implications. For example, during World War II, Allied aircraft would release CHAFF—lumps of tinfoil converted into fragments—to confuse enemy radar; however, many planes still were shot down by the Germans since the CHAFF that was dropped tended to fall in clumps. At the age of 14, drawing from your experimentation with cosmetics and using the materials available at your father‘s aluminum foil–rolling company, you designed a coating that prevented CHAFF from clumping, effectively confusing Nazi radar. Because of you, after bombing raids many RAF pilots were able to return safely to their bases in England.
In 2020, an endowed scholarship at the Yale School of Medicine was established in your honor, which provides financial aid for students at YSM. This is one more testimony to your work, teaching, and mentorship over many years.
As you retire from the faculty, your university thanks you for your contributions and for leading a career that—in terms of the game you love—can be defined as game, set, and match.