Richard Winyu Tsien (born 3 March 1945), is a Chinese-born American electrical engineer and neurobiologist. He is the Druckenmiller Professor of Neuroscience, Chair of the Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, and Director of the NYU Neuroscience Institute at

New York University Medical Center NYU Langone Health is an academic medical center located in New York City, New York, United States. The health system consists of NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Long Island School of Medicine, both part of New York University (NYU), and m ...

, and also an emeritus faculty member of Stanford University School of Medicine.

Early life and education

Tsien was born in

Tating Tating is a municipality in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after ...

, Kweichow, China and is a descendant of King of Wuyue Tsien Liu. Soon after his birth, Tsien's family moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Tsien received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in 1965 and

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

degree in 1966, both in electrical engineering from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. Tsien then won a Rhodes Scholarship and went to study in the UK at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

, from 1966 to 1969. Tsien obtained a

Doctor of Philosophy 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 ...

(DPhil) degree in

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. ...

from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1970.

Career and research

From 1968 to 1970, Tsien was a Weir Junior Research Fellow at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

. From 1969 to 1970, Tsien was a teaching fellow at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1970, Tsien went back to the

, and became an

assistant professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree A docto ...

in the Department of Physiology at

Yale University School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary te ...

from 1970 to 1974. From 1974 to 1979, Tsien was an associate professor in the same department, and was promoted to full professor in 1979. In 1988, Tsien went to Stanford and founded the Stanford University Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, where he also served as the first chairman. From 1991 to 2001, Tsien was the Silvio Conte Director - National Institutes of Mental Health Center for Neuroscience Research. From 1988 to 2011, Tsien was the George D. Smith Professor at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. From 2000 to 2011, Tsien served as Co-Director for the Stanford Brain Research Center. Tsien did important work on calcium channels, their mechanisms and roles in

cell signaling In biology, cell signaling (cell signalling in British English) or cell communication is the ability of a cell to receive, process, and transmit signals with its environment and with itself. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellula ...

pathways. Tsien's research also helps us understand the long-term plasticity of synapses. From 1987 to 1988, Tsien served as president of the

Society of General Physiologists The Society of General Physiologists (SGP) is a scientific organization whose purpose is to promote and disseminate knowledge in the field of general physiology, and otherwise to advance understanding and interest in the subject of general physio ...

. In August 2000, Tsien also served the Section Chair of Neurobiology 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 ...

Selected honors & awards

* 1985, Kenneth S. Cole Award (for contributions to membrane biophysics) * 1991, 1995, 1999, Kaiser Award for Outstanding and Innovative Teaching, from Stanford University * 1993, Magnes Prize, from

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

* 1994, elected to the United States Institute of Medicine * 1996, awardee "Perspectives in Physiology: Walter B. Cannon Memorial Lecture", from the

American Physiological Society The American Physiological Society is a non-profit professional society for physiologists. It has nearly 10,000 members, most of whom hold doctoral degrees in medicine, physiology or other health professions. Its mission is to support research an ...

* 1996, elected to the Academia Sinica * 1997, elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS) * 1998, elected to 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 ...

* 2000, elected Fellow of the Biophysical Society * 2014 Bard Lecture, Johns Hopkins University

Personal life

Tsien's youngest brother Roger Y. Tsien, a biochemist, won the 2008

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

.Nobelprize.or
2008 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry - Roger Y. Tsien
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsien, Winyu Richard 1943 births Living people 20th-century American biologists 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American engineers Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford American electrical engineers American neuroscientists American Rhodes Scholars Chinese emigrants to the United States Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences MIT School of Engineering alumni Members of Academia Sinica Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Scientists from Guizhou Stanford University School of Medicine faculty Tsien family Yale School of Medicine faculty Yale University faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine