Professor Dr Eric Westhof
- Section Biochemistry and Biophysics
- Location Strasbourg, France
- Election year 2000
Research
Eric Westhof is distinguished for major contributions in nucleic acid stereochemistry and in the fields of structural biophysics and bioinformatics of RNA molecules. He has developed computer programs for nucleic acid crystallographic refinement and three-dimensional modelling. He produced with his collaborators the first all-atom tertiary models of large catalytic RNAs. The architectures of those complex assemblies were later conforted by independent X-ray structure analysis. His present research focuses on the relationships between sequence, structure, and molecular evolution of RNA. He is executive editor of the journals "RNA" and "Nucleic Acids Research".
Career
- since 1988 Professor of Structural Biochemistry at the University of Strasbourg, France
- since 2009 Vice President for Research and Doctoral Studies of the University of Strasbourg, France
- 2007-2008 Vice President for Research and Doctoral Studies of the University Louis Pasteur, France
- 2006 Director of the CNRS Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMC)
- since 2005 Director of the CNRS Unit “Architecture and Reactivity of RNA”
- since 1988 Professor of Structural Biochemistry at the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg, France; Supervisor for the Biophysics and Structural Biology program at the Faculty of Biology of the University Louis Pasteur, France
- 1984 Chargé de recherches (CR1) of the CNRS at the IBMC
- 1981 EMBO Fellowship, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IBMC) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Strasbourg, France
- 1977 FULBRIGHT-HAYS Research Fellow and Research Associate, Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
- 1974 Ph.D., Liège University, Belgium
- 1971 EURATOM Ph.D. Fellowship, Regensburg University, Germany
- 1971 Licence en Sciences Physiques, Master in Physics, Liège University, Belgium
Honours and Memberships
- 2012 Edmond de Rothschild Lecture, IBPC, Paris, France
- 2011 Member of the French Academy of Sciences
- 2011 Feodor Lynen Lecture, Mosbach, Germany
- 2007 Charles-Léopold MAYER Prize of the French Academy of Sciences
- 2005-2008 Human Frontier Science Program
- 2004-2009 President, Société française de Biochimie et de Biologie Moléculaire, member of FEBS, Comité National de Biochimie, French Academy of Sciences, member of IUMB
- 2004 Fellow of the Institute of Physics, London, UK
- since 2003 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Scientific Computing Heidelberg University, Germany
- 2002-2008 European Union
- 2002-2006 Scientific council of the University Louis Pasteur, France
- since 2002 Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemitry, Poznan, Polish Academy of Sciences
- since 2002 Scientific council of the Biology Department of the Ecole normale supérieure Paris, France
- 2002-2008 Member and Chair of the EMBO Publications Committee
- 2001-2002 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Visiting Professor, Rutgers University, USA
- 2001 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
- 2001 Member of the Academia Europaea
- 2000 Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
- 2000-2001 Director for RNA Society
- 1997-2003 Scientific Advisory Board of Ribotargets, Cambridge, UK
- 1999-2003 Scientific Advisory Board of Nascacell, Munich, Germany
- 1999 Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Sciences
- 1998 Member of the EMBO
- 1995 Structural Biochemistry Chair of the Institut Universitaire de France
- 1992 Jacques MONOD Prize