Contents
Michael Levitt
Computer models for complex molecules and chemical systems.
Molecular simulations
- Born
- 9 May 1947
- Birthplace
- Pretoria
More people
Michael Levitt
South African-born scientist whose simulations helped connect molecular structure with biological function. Shared the 2013 chemistry Nobel Prize with Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel.
Early life
Physics and computation
Grew up in Pretoria, studied physics at King’s College London and undertook doctoral research at Cambridge’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology from 1968 to 1972.
Career
- 1973–1980
Cambridge research
Worked as a staff scientist at the MRC laboratory.
- 1980–1987
Weizmann Institute
Held a chemical-physics professorship.
- 1987
Stanford
Became a professor of structural biology.
- 2013
Nobel recognition
Honoured for multiscale molecular models.
Contributions
Molecular simulations
Developed approaches to represent and study proteins and DNA computationally.
Beyond work
Family
Married multimedia artist Rina, with whom he had three children. She died in 2017.
Sources & photo credit
Biography and career ↗Biographical references ↗Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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Photo: Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden. CC BY 2.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.