Alan Weiner coming from Yale to head Biochemistry Department

Dr. Alan M. Weiner, currently a professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry and of genetics at Yale University School of Medicine, has been named chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the UW School of Medicine. His appointment becomes effective later this summer, pending UW Board of Regents’ approval.

Alan Weiner and Nancy Maizels

Weiner has served for the past 10 years as editor-in-chief of the prestigious scientific journal, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and has been on the editorial boards or served as editor of several other major research journals. He has also chaired the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Molecular Biology Study Section.

His research fields include the structure and evolution of eukaryotic genomes, the causes of chromosome fragility, the transcription and function of small nuclear and cytoplasmic RNA species, and the function of the CCA-adding enzyme. Weiner is also interested in the evolution of early genomes and questions regarding the origin of life. He is a prolific researcher and writer.

Born in Massachusetts, Weiner graduated from Yale College summa cum laude with a degree in chemistry before attending graduate school at Harvard University, where he earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology. He held postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford Medical School and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the faculty at Yale in 1976.

Weiner is married to Dr. Nancy Maizels, a distinguished molecular biologist and an award-winning teacher of biochemistry at Yale School of Medicine. Maizels, a Seattle native, will join the faculty of the UW Department of Immunology, also in the School of Medicine. Maizels and Weiner have two daughters, one entering 10th grade at Lakeside School, and the other a senior at Reed College in Portland.

Weiner succeeds Dr. Ken Walsh, who served as chair from 1992 until this year. Dr. Richard Palmiter was acting chair in the interim. ¶

Leila Gray