Timothy John Richmond (born October 9, 1948, in Corvallis) is a Swiss/American molecular biologist, biochemist, and biophysicist. He graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Purdue University, where his teachers included Larry G. Butler (died 1997) and

Michael G. Rossmann Michael G. Rossmann (30 July 1930 – 14 May 2019) was a German-American physicist, microbiologist, and Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University who led a team of researchers to be the first to map the structure ...

. Richmond graduated in 1975 from Yale University's department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry with a dissertation on protein-DNA interaction under the supervision of

Frederic M. Richards Frederic Middlebrook Richards (August 19, 1925 – January 11, 2009), commonly referred to as Fred Richards, was an American biochemist and biophysicist known for solving the pioneering crystal structure of the ribonuclease S enzyme in 1967 an ...

and

Thomas A. Steitz Thomas Arthur Steitz (August 23, 1940 – October 9, 2018) was an American biochemist, a Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, best known for hi ...

. Richmond was a postdoc at Yale University from 1975 to 1978 under the supervision of Frederic M. Richards and from 1978 to 1980 at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology under the supervision of Sir

Aaron Klug Sir Aaron Klug (11 August 1926 – 20 November 2018) was a British biophysicist and chemist. He was a winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of bio ...

studying the

nucleosome A nucleosome is the basic structural unit of DNA packaging in eukaryotes. The structure of a nucleosome consists of a segment of DNA wound around eight histone proteins and resembles thread wrapped around a spool. The nucleosome is the fundamen ...

(which is the fundamental subunit of chromatin). Richmond was from 1980 to 1987 a tenured staff scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and in 1987 was appointed "Professor of X-ray Crystallography of Biological Macromolecules" at

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

's Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics. At ETH Zurich he became in 2005 vice-chair of the biology department. He was the postdoctoral supervisor of Karolin Luger. Richmond was elected in 1994 a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(AAAS). He was elected a member in 1995 of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), in 2000 of the Academia Europaea, in 2004 of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and in 2007 of the U.S.

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 ...

. In 2001 he was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by Purdue University. His prizes or awards include the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2002 and the Marcel Benoist Prize in 2006. In 2023, Timothy J. Richmond, Daniela Rhodes and Karolin Luger were awarded th
WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine
"for elucidating the structure of the nucleosome at the atomic level, providing the basis for understanding chromatin, gene regulation, and epigenetics."
The WLA Prize

Selected publications

* (over 1250 citations) * * * (over 10300 citations) * * * * * * (over 1600 citations) * 2003 (over 1450 citations) * * * * (over 900 citations)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richmond, Timothy J. American biochemists American molecular biologists American crystallographers Purdue University alumni Yale University alumni Academic staff of ETH Zurich Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of Academia Europaea Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization 1948 births Living people