Dr. Helen Berman is a preeminent leader in structural biology whose foundational work has revolutionized how scientists access and utilize molecular structure data worldwide. She currently serves as a Research Professor at the University of Southern California while holding the distinguished title of Board of Governors Distinguished Professor Emerita of Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Rutgers University. Her academic journey began with an AB in Chemistry from Barnard College in 1964, followed by a PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967 where she trained in crystallography under George Jeffrey. She established her independent research career at the Institute for Cancer Research at Fox Chase Cancer Center before joining Rutgers University in 1989, where she spent the majority of her career building essential infrastructure for the structural biology community.
Dr. Berman's most transformative contribution has been her instrumental role in founding and developing the Protein Data Bank in 1971, which evolved into the worldwide Protein Data Bank she directed as part of the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics from 1998 to 2014. She pioneered multiple critical resources including the Nucleic Acid Database (1992), the Structural Biology Knowledgebase (2008), and the Unified Data Resource for 3D Electron Microscopy (2007), creating indispensable infrastructure for over 320 scholarly publications on nucleic acids, protein-nucleic acid interactions, and collagen. Her research illuminated the fundamental role of water in molecular recognition and structural biology, establishing systematic frameworks for data collection, validation, and distribution that transformed structural biology from a specialized discipline into a data-driven science accessible to researchers globally. These comprehensive databases have enabled countless breakthroughs in drug discovery, molecular engineering, and our understanding of life processes at the atomic level.
As a dedicated science communicator and mentor, Dr. Berman has profoundly shaped both the structural biology field and public understanding of molecular science through innovative interdisciplinary approaches. She is a distinguished fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy for Arts and Sciences, and multiple scientific societies, having received prestigious honors including the Benjamin Franklin Award for Open Access in the Life Sciences and the Carl Brändén Award from the Protein Society. Dr. Berman pioneered the use of visual media to communicate complex science, serving as Executive Producer of the documentary Target Zero about HIV prevention and currently developing the Inner Space: World in a Cell VR experience that visualizes pancreatic beta cell interiors. Her ongoing work continues to bridge computational science with public engagement, ensuring molecular structures remain accessible and inspiring to researchers and the general public alike while mentoring future generations of structural biologists.
