Douglas E. Smith

Professor

Department of Physics
University of California, San Diego
Natural Sciences Building, Mail Code 0379
9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093
Email: des@physics.ucsd.edu
Website: Douglas E. Smith’s research website

View Douglas E. Smith’s publications on Google Scholar

Research topics

Viral DNA packaging in bacteriophages phi29, lambda, and T4
Function of ATP-dependent molecular motors
Single-polymer dynamics, including polymer physics, DNA properties, and microrheology
Chromatin assembly and structure
Protein-mediated DNA looping
DNA unzipping
Physics of knot formation

Techniques

Manipulation of single DNA molecules with optical tweezers
Single-DNA-molecule imaging by fluorescence microscopy
Molecular biology and biochemistry

Background

Ph.D. in Applied Physics, Stanford University, 1999
Thesis research: Manipulation and imaging of single DNA molecules; single-polymer dynamics
Advisor: Steve Chu

B.A. in Physics, University of Chicago, 1993

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1999–2001
Research: Single-molecule studies of viral DNA packaging
Advisor: Carlos Bustamante

Awards

Sloan Foundation Fellow, 2003
Beckman Young Investigator Award, 2003
Searle Scholars Award, 2002
Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in Biomedical Science, 2001
Research Corporation Research Innovation Award, 2001
Graduate Fellowship, NSF Program in Mathematics and Molecular Biology, 1996
Sigma Xi Science Prize, 1993
Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, 1993