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What Arieh Warshel and fellow 2013 Nobel laureates Michael Levitt and Martin Karplus achieved — beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s when computers were still very primitive — was the creation of methods and programs that describe the action of biological molecules by "multiscale models". In this book, Warshel describes this fascinating, half-century journey to the apex of science.
From Kibbutz Fishponds to The Nobel Prize is as much an autobiography as an advocacy for the emerging field of computational science. We follow Warshel through pivotal moments of his life, from his formative years in war-torn Israel in an idealistic kibbutz that did not encourage academic education; to his time in the army and his move to the Technion where he started in his obsession of understanding the catalytic power of enzymes; to his eventual scientific career which took him to the Weizmann Institute, Harvard University, Medical Research Council, and finally University of Southern California. We read about his unique contributions to the elucidation of the molecular basis of biological functions, which are combined with instructive stories about his persistence in advancing ideas that contradict the current dogma, and the nature of his scientific struggle for recognition, both personal and for the field to which he devoted his life. This is, in so many ways, more than just a memoir: it is a profoundly inspirational tale of one man's odyssey from a kibbutz that did not allow him to go to a university to the pinnacle of the scientific world, highlighting that the correct mixture of persistence, talent and luck can lead to a Nobel Prize.
MRC, the Cathedral of Molecular Biology: 1974–1976
USC: 1976–1981
Sabbatical at the Weizmann Institute: 1981–1982
At USC: 1982–1990
Moving Forward: 1990–2009
Multiscale Modeling of Large Biological Systems
The Nobel Prize
Life After the Nobel Prize
Epilogue
Readership: The general public, especially science enthusiasts and people interested in the Nobel Prize. Historians, students and scientists, especially those in the fields of Computational Biology/Chemistry, Molecular Modelling, Structural Biology, Catalysis, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Pharmaceutical Science and Medicine.
"Prof. Warshel's autobiography makes for compulsive reading, as it intertwines personal stories from his life with major milestones in Israeli history (as presented through the lived experience of the author) and the scientific journey that took him from his early education at an Israeli kibbutz to the Nobel Prize. This is then wrapped up with a forward-looking perspective on the direction of the field of computational biology. Overall, a strongly recommended read!"
Caroline Lynn Kamerlin FRSC Professor of Structural Biology, Uppsala University, Sweden
"This is an exciting autobiography of one of the most creative scientists spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. Arieh Warshel revolutionized computational chemistry of biomolecules while firmly grounding the results of his research in the primacy of electrostatics as the mediator of the interactions between and within complex molecules. This book will be especially inspiring for scientists just beginning their own independent careers in its recounting of Warshel's struggles to introduce new ideas into a field not known for intellectual flexibility."
R Dean Astumian Professor of Physics, University of Maine, USA
"Arieh Warshel gives an engaging account of growing up in a kibbutz in a country repeatedly torn by war, of the influences that led to his use of computers to elucidate complex biophysical and biochemical systems, and of the long but ultimately successful struggle to convince more established scientists of the validity and power of his approach. His memoir is written with refreshing candor and clarity."
William W Parson Professor of Biochemistry, University of Washington, USA
"A narrative of a creative genius whose journey from a kibbutz to Stockholm is as compelling as it is inspirational. It is a must-read for young and aspiring scientists who seek to create their own path rather than follow the road well-trodden."
Devarajan Thirumalai FRSC Collie-Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Dr Arieh Warshel is Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biology at the University of Southern California, USA, where he currently holds the Dana and David Dornsife Chair in Chemistry. He was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, alongside Martin Karplus and Michael Levitt, for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems. He is an elected Member of the USA National Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and elected Fellow of the Biophysical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has authored over 500 peer-reviewed articles and a book, Computer Modeling of Chemical Reactions in Enzymes and Solutions (Wiley, 1991).
Dr Warshel was born in 1940 to a family of founders of the Sde Nahum kibbutz, in what was then Mandatory Palestine (now Israel). He served in the Israeli Signal and Armored Corps, and fought in both the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, attaining the final rank of Captain. He attended the Technion in Haifa, where he studied Chemistry based on an off-the-cuff suggestion by a friend. He received his BSc degree, summa cum laude, in 1966 — the same year he married his wife Tamar, with whom he has two daughters. He earned his MSc (1967) and PhD (1969) in Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, working under the Institute's scientific director, Shneior Lifson, and collaborating with Michael Levitt. After his PhD, he did postdoctoral work at Harvard University with Martin Karplus from 1970–1972. He then returned to the Weizmann Institute and also worked at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England where he was reunited with Michael Levitt. He joined the Chemistry faculty at USC in 1976, where he has been ever since.
Dr Warshel is known for his work on computational biochemistry and biophysics, in particular for pioneering multiscale simulations of the functions of biological systems, and for developing what is known today as Computational Enzymology. He is responsible for introducing molecular dynamics in biology; developing the QM/MM approach; introducing simulations of enzymatic reactions; pioneering microscopic simulations of electron transfer and proton transfer in solutions and in proteins; pioneering microscopic modeling of electrostatic effects in macromolecules; and introducing simulations of protein folding. He has continued to be active in research, and in April 2017 he opened the Warshel Institute for Computational Biology at the CUHK Shenzhen campus, with the intention of fostering one of the world's most advanced computational biology centers in the Southern Chinese city. As of 2021, he has an h-index of 118.