The Virginia Tech College of Science’s J. Mark Sowers Distinguished Lecture Series will host its first live, in-person conversation since fall 2019 on Thursday, September 29.
The lecture will feature Ron Vale, vice president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and executive director of the Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. Vale will discuss “The World’s Smallest Machine,” an in-depth look at how the cells in every living thing have incredibly complex moving parts that operate similar to robots. Vale is also a professor emeritus of the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology.
The speech will be delivered at 19:30. in the Holtzman Alumni Center Auditorium on the Blacksburg campus and via Zoom webinar. Registration is required. It is free and open to the public.
Describing his lecture, Vale said, “Look around living organisms. What do you see? They move. Birds fly, tigers pounce, and football players run on the field. Movement is a fundamental property of biological organisms. Now look under the microscope. Pond water is full of unicellular organisms that swim and spin in all directions. Let’s zoom in and look inside the cell. Small packages of building blocks called organelles move around, functioning like cargo trucks that deliver goods within the city. Even yeast that making beer must transfer their DNA when they divide.
He added, “I will discuss the molecular motors [that] drive biological motion. These motors cause muscle contractions, the beating of the cilia in your lungs and the sperm flagella, and the movement of materials inside cells. I will tell you about my discovery of one of the machines these, called kinesins, explain how these machines work, and discuss why they are important for medicine and biotechnology.
Daniela Cimini, professor with the Department of Biological Sciences, part of the College of Science, was invited by Vale to visit as a Sowers lecturer. “We owe a lot of what we know about molecular motors and how they function to Ron’s work,” Cimini said. “One of Ron’s strengths as a scientist is his ability to use a broad spectrum of approaches, from biochemistry to cell biology to physics.
Vale received his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford University in 1985, was a staff fellow with the US National Institutes of Health, stationed at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hall, Massachusetts, from 1985-86. He began his teaching position in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco, in 1987.
He has worked in collaboration with many people and organizations to make science more accessible to the wider scientific community as well as the public, Cimini said.
Vale founded iBiology, a non-profit organization that produces videos of scientific lectures by leading scientists and makes them freely available to the public. Vale also founded XBio (The Explorer’s Guide to Biology), a new type of undergraduate biology learning resource. He also founded ASAPbio, a non-profit organization, to improve scientific publishing in the life sciences.
In addition, he founded the biotech companies Cytokinetics, Faze, and Myeloid Therapeutics.
Other ventures he started include IndiaBioscience, a network organization for life sciences in India, and the annual Young Researcher Meeting for young Indian scientists. He previously co-directed the Marine Biology Laboratory Physiology Course for five years and founded/directed the Bangalore Microscopy Course.
Among his awards and honors are Canada’s Gairdner International Award, the Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research, the Shaw Prize in Life Sciences, the Massry Prize, the Wiley Prize, and the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the European Organization for Molecular Biology, and the Indian National Academy of Sciences.
The J. Mark Sowers Distinguished Lecture Series in the College of Science at Virginia Tech is a forum for the exchange of new and innovative ideas in the scientific field. In all, there have been 15 lectures, held in person and virtually, since the series began in February 2017.
Generously supported by Mark and Debi Sowers, the series provides an opportunity for the university community and the general public to interact with and learn from scholars and industry experts.
Sowers is an entrepreneur and developer based in Richmond, Virginia and a longtime supporter of the College of Science. He sponsored this series to share his passion for science, especially physical science.
