Martin Chalfie

Martin Chalfie
Martin Lee Chalfie (born January 15, 1947) is an

American scientist. He is University Professor at Martin Chalfie
Columbia University.[3] He shared the 2008 Nobel
Prize in Chemistry along with Osamu Shimomura and
Roger Y. Tsien "for the discovery and development of
the green fluorescent protein, GFP".[4] He holds a PhD
in neurobiology from Harvard University.
Education and early life

Chalfie grew up in Chicago, Illinois, son of the
guitarist Eli Chalfie (1910–1996) and owner of an
apparel store Vivian Chalfie (née Friedlen, 1913–
2005). His maternal grandfather, Meyer L. Friedlen,
immigrated to Chicago from Moscow at an early age;
his paternal grandparents, Benjamin and Esther
Chalfie, came to Cincinnati from Brest-Litovsk[5] and Chalfie in 2018
are Jewish.[6]
Born Martin Lee Chalfie[1]
He matriculated at Harvard University in 1965, January 15, 1947
intending to be a math major,[7] but he switched to Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
biochemistry because it combined his interests in Citizenship American
chemistry, math, and biology.[7] He spent the summer Education Harvard University (BA, PhD)
after his junior year working in the laboratory of Klaus
Known for Green fluorescent protein
Weber at Harvard, but "It was so disheartening to
completely fail that I decided I shouldn't be in Spouse Tulle Hazelrigg[2]
biology."[8] As a result, in his senior year, he Awards E. B. Wilson Medal (2008)

completed his major and took courses in law, theater, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2008)
and Russian literature.[7] Golden Goose Award (2012)
Foreign Member of the Royal
He also competed on the swim team at Harvard and Society (2018)
was named captain in his senior year. At the time, Lomonosov Gold Medal (2018)
swimming coach Bill Brooks said, "Marty will make Scientific career
an excellent captain because he has the admiration of
Fields Neurobiology
the entire team."[9] As captain, he won the Harold S.
Ulen trophy, awarded "to a senior on the Harvard team Institutions Columbia University
who best demonstrates those qualities of leadership, Laboratory of Molecular Biology
sportsmanship, and team cooperation as exemplified University of Cambridge
by Harold S. Ulen."[10] Following the announcement Thesis Regulation of catecholamine

biosynthesis and secretion in a
of Chalfie's Nobel award, his freshman-year roommate rat pheochromocytoma (http://id.li
observed of Chalfie, "He would always identify b.harvard.edu/alma/9900379924
himself as a swimmer."[8] 60203941/catalog) (1977)
Doctoral Robert L. Perlman
After graduating in 1969, he worked at a variety of
advisor
temporary jobs, such as selling dresses for his parents'
Website biology.columbia.edu/people
dress manufacturing business in Chicago [7] and
/chalfie (https://biology.columbia.
teaching at Hamden Hall Country Day School in
edu/people/chalfie)
Hamden, Connecticut.[7] In the summer of 1971, his
research at the laboratory of Jose Zadunaisky at Yale
University resulted in his first publication. With revived
confidence,[7] he returned to Harvard for graduate studies under
Robert Perlman, and received his PhD in 1977.
Career and research

Chalfie conducted his postdoctoral research at the Laboratory of Paul Krugman, Roger Tsien, Martin
Molecular Biology (LMB) with Sydney Brenner and John Sulston, Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, Makoto
and the three published a paper in 1985 on "The Neural Circuit for Kobayashi and Toshihide
Touch Sensitivity in C. elegans".[11] Chalfie then left the LMB in Masukawa, Nobel Prize Laureates
2008, at a press conference at the
1982 to join the faculty of Columbia University in the department
Swedish Academy of Science in
of biological sciences and continued to study C. elegans touch Stockholm.
mutants.
He married Tulle Hazelrigg. She later joined him on the faculty of Columbia University.[7] She gave him
permission to cite her unpublished research in his seminal Science paper "Green Fluorescent Protein as a
Marker for Gene Expression"[12] on condition that he made coffee, cooked, and emptied the garbage
nightly for a month.[13]
Chalfie and his wife had a daughter, Sarah, in July 1992.
Chalfie was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.
He slept through the phone call from the Nobel Prize Committee.[8][14] When he woke up, he knew the
prize would have been announced already, so he said "Okay, who's the schnook that got the Prize this
time?" And so he opened up his laptop, got to the Nobel Prize site and found out that he was the
schnook![14]
In 2015, Chalfie signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change on the final day of the 65th
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed
to then-President of the French Republic, François Hollande, as part of the successful COP21 climate
summit in Paris.[15]
Chalfie's lab uses the nematode C. elegans to investigate aspects of nerve cell development and function.
The wealth of developmental, anatomical, genetic, and molecular information available for C. elegans
provides a powerful and multifaceted approach to these studies.
He has published over 100 papers of which at least 25 have over 100 citations.[16]
He traces his work on green fluorescent protein to a 1988 seminar from Paul Brehm about bioluminescent
organisms, which led to some crucial experiments in 1992, detailed in his paper "Green fluorescent
protein as a marker for gene expression",[17] which is among the 20 most-cited papers in the field of
Molecular Biology & Genetics.[18] Chalfie won a Golden Goose Award for this work in 2012.[19]
He received an honorary degree in physics from the University of Parma on July 4, 2023.[20]
See also
List of Jewish Nobel laureates
References
1. Chalfie, Martin Lee (1977). "Regulation of Catecholamine Biosynthesis and Secretion in a
Rat Pheochromocytoma" (https://books.google.com/books?id=UE9VHAAACAAJ).
2. Smith, Adam (October 8, 2008). "Interview" (https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemis
try/laureates/2008/chalfie-telephone.html). The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008.
nobelprize.org. Retrieved December 2, 2013.
3. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008 (http://www.newsdesk.se/pressroom/kungliga_vetenska
psakademien__kva/pressrelease/view/the-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2008-243710) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20081011113057/http://www.newsdesk.se/pressroom/kungliga
_vetenskapsakademien__kva/pressrelease/view/the-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2008-243710)
October 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
4. Website of the Nobel Prize committee. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureate
s/2008/)
5. Autobiography on Nobelprize.org (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/20
08/chalfie.html?print=1)
6. JINFO. "Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry" (https://www.jinfo.org/Nobels_Chemistry.
html). www.jinfo.org. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
7. Davis, Tinsley (January 28, 2008). "Profile of Martin Chalfie" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p
mc/articles/PMC2234153). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (5).
National Academy of Sciences: 1393–5. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.1393D (https://ui.adsabs.
harvard.edu/abs/2008PNAS..105.1393D). doi:10.1073/pnas.0704615105 (https://doi.org/10.
1073%2Fpnas.0704615105). PMC 2234153 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM
C2234153). PMID 18227519 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18227519).
8. Wu, June Q. (October 9, 2008). "Harvard Alumni Win Nobel Prize" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20090216130636/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524525). Harvard
Crimson. Archived from the original (http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524525) on
February 16, 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2008.
9. "Chalfie is named tankers' captain" (http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=139729).
Harvard Crimson. March 21, 1968.
10. Beach, Bennett H. (April 18, 1969). "Two Awards Presented To Diver Bill Murphy" (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20051118041704/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=494782).
Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original (http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=49
4782) on November 18, 2005. Retrieved October 13, 2008.
11. "The Neural Circuit for Touch Sensitivity in C. Elegans" (http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/reprint/
5/4/956.pdf)
12. Chalife, M; Tu, Y; Euskirchen, G; Ward, WW; Prasher, DC (1994). "Green Fluorescent
Protein as a Marker for Gene Expression". Science. 263 (5148): 802–805.
Bibcode:1994Sci...263..802C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994Sci...263..802C).
doi:10.1126/science.8303295 (https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.8303295). PMID 8303295
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8303295). S2CID 9043327 (https://api.semanticscholar.or
g/CorpusID:9043327).
13. Nobel Lecture slide 17 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/chalfie-s
lides.pdf)
14. Smith, Adam. "Interview with Martin Chalfie" (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/la
ureates/2008/chalfie-telephone.html). Nobel Foundation.
15. "Mainau Declaration" (http://www.mainaudeclaration.org/). www.mainaudeclaration.org.
Retrieved January 11, 2018.
16. "Web of Science" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110701061806/http://thomsonreuters.com/
products_services/science/science_products/a-z/web_of_science/). Thomson Reuters.
Archived from the original (http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_pr
oducts/a-z/web_of_science/) on July 1, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
17. Chalfie, M.; et al. (1994). "Green fluorescent protein as a marker for gene expression".
Science. 263 (5148): 802–805. Bibcode:1994Sci...263..802C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/
abs/1994Sci...263..802C). doi:10.1126/science.8303295 (https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscienc
e.8303295). PMID 8303295 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8303295). S2CID 9043327 (ht
tps://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:9043327).
18. Taubes, Gary (December 2002). "An interview with: Martin Chalfie, Ph.D." (http://www.in-cite
s.com/papers/DrMartinChalfie.html) InCites. Retrieved December 2, 2013.
19. "Green Fluorescent Protein" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150909231925/http://www.gold
engooseaward.org/awardees/200352el6rpcnd3yibqw96m4yxtpvu). The Golden Goose
Award. Archived from the original (http://www.goldengooseaward.org/awardees/200352el6rp
cnd3yibqw96m4yxtpvu) on September 9, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
20. "L'Università di Parma celebra il Premio Nobel Martin Chalfie: laurea ad honorem in Fisica"
(https://www.unipr.it/notizie/luniversita-di-parma-celebra-il-premio-nobel-martin-chalfie-laure
a-ad-honorem-fisica). Università degli studi di Parma (in Italian). July 4, 2023. Retrieved
July 5, 2023.
External links
Chalfie's lab Website (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/faculty/chalfie/) Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20121013222118/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/faculty/chalfie/)
October 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
Martin Chalfie (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/830) on Nobelprize.org including the
Nobel Lecture on December 8, 2008, GFP: Lighting Up Life
Martin Chalfie's Short Talk: "Developing GFP as a Biological Marker" (https://www.ibiology.or
g/cell-biology/developing-gfp/)
GFP: Adventures in Nontranslational Research (https://vimeo.com/22972364) lecture at the
Linda Hall Library, April 26, 2011
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Martin Chalfie

Martin Lee Chalfie (born January 15, 1947) is an

Education and early life

biology."[8] As a result, in his senior year, he Awards E. B. Wilson Medal (2008)

by Harold S. Ulen."[10] Following the announcement Thesis Regulation of catecholamine

Career and research

Chalfie and his wife had a daughter, Sarah, in July 1992.

Chalfie was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Martin_Chalfie&oldid=1247754720"

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