Howard Curtis Berg (March 16, 1934 – December 30, 2021) was the Herchel Smith Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where he taught

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

and studied the

motility Motility is the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy. Definitions Motility, the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy, can be contrasted with sessility, the state of organisms th ...

of the bacterium ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Esc ...

(E. coli)''. Berg has been a member of the Harvard University Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology since 1986 and of the Harvard University Department of Physics since 1997. He was also a member of the

Rowland Institute for Science The Rowland Institute for Science was founded by Edwin H. Land, founder of Polaroid Corporation, as a nonprofit, privately endowed basic research organization in 1980. The institute merged with Harvard University on July 1, 2002, and is now called ...

at Harvard University.

Early life and family

Berg was born to Esther C. and Clarence P. Berg in Iowa City, where his father was a biochemist at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

and an expert on the

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

of non-proteinogenic D-amino acids. Berg was the husband of Mary Guyer Berg, a scholar of Latin American literature. Berg has 3 children. His elder son Henry became a tech entrepreneur in Washington State, his second son Alec, a comedy writer in Hollywood. His youngest, daughter Elena, studies animal behavior at the American University in Paris.

Education and career

Berg studied as an undergraduate at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

and received a B.S. in chemistry in 1956. After graduation, he spent a year with Kai Linderstrøm-Lang at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen. Eventually he was accepted into the physics graduate program at Harvard, where he earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

chemical physics Chemical physics is a subdiscipline of chemistry and physics that investigates physicochemical phenomena using techniques from atomic and molecular physics and condensed matter physics; it is the branch of physics that studies chemical process ...

in 1964, with a dissertation on the

hydrogen maser A hydrogen maser, also known as hydrogen frequency standard, is a specific type of maser that uses the intrinsic properties of the hydrogen atom to serve as a precision frequency reference. Both the proton and electron of a hydrogen atom have s ...

directed by Nobel Laureate

Norman Ramsey Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. (August 27, 1915 – November 4, 2011) was an American physicist who was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics, for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method, which had important applications in the const ...

. Although he became a faculty member and junior fellow in the

Society of Fellows The Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginnings of their careers by Harvard University for their potential to advance academic wisdom, upon whom are bestowed distinctive opportunities to foster their individual and intell ...

at Harvard, he joined the new Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

in Boulder in 1970. After a 7-year stint at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, he returned to Harvard in 1986. Among his major achievements was the discovery that bacteria swim by rotating their flagellar filaments, which was also the title of a paper he was most proud of. Berg was an active researcher until very late in life. At the age of 87, he was awarded an NSF grant to study the stator unit that drives rotation of the bacterial flagellum being itself a rotary machine. He is author of the influential book ''Random Walks in Biology'' (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 1983) about the biological applications of diffusion.

Awards

With Edward Purcell, Berg received the Max Delbrück Prize in Biological Physics from the American Physical Society in 1984 for work on the physical limits of bacterial chemoreception.1984 Max Delbruck Prize in Biological Physics Recipient: Howard Berg
/ref> He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1985 and a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1990 (''"for the elucidation of complex biological phenomena, particularly chemotaxis and bacterial locomotion, through simple but penetrating physical theories and brilliant experiments"''). Berg was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

References

External links

Research Summary & Profile
Harvard University
Faculty profile in Harvard department of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Howard Berg: Studies on E. Coli in motion

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, Howard 1934 births 2021 deaths People from Iowa City, Iowa California Institute of Technology alumni Harvard University alumni 21st-century American biologists American biophysicists 21st-century American physicists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of Colorado faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society Fellows of the American Physical Society Carlsberg Laboratory staff