Dr. Michael Levitt is a world-renowned computational biophysicist and Nobel Laureate whose pioneering work has fundamentally transformed our understanding of molecular structures. He currently serves as Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, a position he has held since 1987, following his tenure as Professor of Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel from 1980 to 1987. Born on May 9, 1947, in Pretoria, South Africa, to a Jewish family from Lithuania, Levitt earned his BSc in physics from King's College, London, in 1967 before completing his PhD in biophysics at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge University, in 1971. His early career included significant research appointments at the Weizmann Institute and the MRC Laboratory, where he laid the groundwork for his revolutionary contributions to computational chemistry and structural biology.
Dr. Levitt's groundbreaking research on multiscale modeling of complex chemical systems earned him the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he shared with Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel for developing computational techniques that simulate protein structures and DNA helices with remarkable accuracy. He was among the first researchers to conduct molecular dynamics simulations of DNA and proteins, creating the initial software that enabled these critical computational approaches in the 1970s. His innovative work established that computational models could accurately represent complex biological systems, allowing scientists to simulate molecular behavior with the same precision engineers use for structural design. Levitt's contributions include developing approaches to predict macromolecular structures, with his participation in Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction competitions demonstrating both the capabilities and limitations of molecular dynamics for protein structure refinement.
Beyond his Nobel-recognized achievements, Dr. Levitt remains at the forefront of his field as a founding co-editor of the Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science, established in 2018 to advance the integration of computational methods in biomedical research. He continues to actively write and maintain sophisticated computer programs for large-scale simulations and molecular graphics interfaces, maintaining expertise in advanced programming and scientific computing tools essential for modern structural biology. His pioneering work established the conceptual and theoretical framework for computational biology, a field in which he remains deeply engaged at all levels, writing and maintaining simulation packages that continue to influence research methodology. Dr. Levitt's ongoing research focuses on advancing computational approaches to achieve even greater accuracy in modeling complex biological systems, ensuring his continued influence on both theoretical and applied aspects of structural biology worldwide.
