Robert Tycko is an American biophysicist whose research primarily involves

solid state NMR Solid-state NMR (ssNMR) spectroscopy is a technique for characterizing atomic level structure in solid materials e.g. powders, single crystals and amorphous samples and tissues using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The anisotropic pa ...

, including the development of new methods and applications to various areas of physics, chemistry, and biology. He is a member of the Laboratory of Chemical Physics in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. He was formerly a member of the Physical Chemistry Research and Materials Chemistry Research departments of AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. His work has contributed to our understanding of geometric phases in spectroscopy, physical properties of fullerenes, skyrmions in 2D electron systems, protein folding, and amyloid fibrils associated with Alzheimer’s disease and prions.

Education

Tycko received his bachelor's degree from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, where he majored in chemistry. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, under the direction of

Alexander Pines Alexander Pines (born June 22, 1945) is an American chemist. He is the Glenn T. Seaborg Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School, University of California, Berke ...

, and then did postdoctoral research at

the University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in the laboratory of Prof. Stanley J. Opella.

Selected honors

*1997: Fellow of American Physical Society . *2001: NIH Director’s Award *2005: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science *2005: Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy, American Physical Society *2007: Hillebrand Prize, Chemical Society of Washington *2008: Fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance *2014: Christian B. Anfinsen Award of the Protein Society *2020: Elected Member of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tycko, Robert Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American biophysicists Princeton University alumni University of Pennsylvania people National Institutes of Health people Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science University of California, Berkeley alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society