Martin Chalfie

File:Krugman-Tsien-Chalfie-Shimomura-Kobayashi-Masukawa-press conference Dec 07th, 2008-1.jpg, Roger Tsien, Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Masukawa, Nobel Prize Laureates 2008, at a press conference at the Swedish Academy of Science in Stockholm.]]

Chalfie grew up in Chicago, Illinois, son of the guitarist Eli Chalfie (1910–1996) and owner of an apparel store Vivian Chalfie (née Friedlen, 1913–2005). His maternal grandfather, Meyer L. Friedlen, immigrated to Chicago from Moscow at an early age; his paternal grandparents, Benjamin and Esther Chalfie, came to Cincinnati from Brest-Litovsk[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/chalfie.html?print=1 Autobiography on Nobelprize.org] and are Jewish.{{Cite web |last=JINFO |title=Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry |url=https://www.jinfo.org/Nobels_Chemistry.html |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=www.jinfo.org}}

He matriculated at Harvard University in 1965, intending to be a math major,{{cite journal|title=Profile of Martin Chalfie|date=January 28, 2008|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|first=Tinsley |last=Davis |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=105|issue=5|pages=1393–5|doi=10.1073/pnas.0704615105|pmid=18227519|pmc=2234153|bibcode=2008PNAS..105.1393D|doi-access=free}} but he switched to biochemistry because it combined his interests in chemistry, math, and biology. He spent the summer after his junior year working in the laboratory of Klaus Weber at Harvard, but "It was so disheartening to completely fail that I decided I shouldn't be in biology."{{cite news|newspaper=Harvard Crimson|title=Harvard Alumni Win Nobel Prize|first=June Q.|last=Wu|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524525|date=October 9, 2008|access-date=October 11, 2008|archive-date=February 16, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216130636/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524525|url-status=dead}} As a result, in his senior year, he completed his major and took courses in law, theater, and Russian literature.

He also competed on the swim team at Harvard and was named captain in his senior year. At the time, swimming coach Bill Brooks said, "Marty will make an excellent captain because he has the admiration of the entire team."{{cite news|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=139729|title=Chalfie is named tankers' captain|date=March 21, 1968|newspaper=Harvard Crimson}}

As captain, he won the Harold S. Ulen trophy, awarded "to a senior on the Harvard team who best demonstrates those qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, and team cooperation as exemplified by Harold S. Ulen."{{cite news|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=494782|title=Two Awards Presented To Diver Bill Murphy|date=April 18, 1969|first=Bennett H.|last=Beach|newspaper=Harvard Crimson|access-date=October 13, 2008|archive-date=November 18, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051118041704/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=494782|url-status=dead}} Following the announcement of Chalfie's Nobel award, his freshman-year roommate observed of Chalfie, "He would always identify himself as a swimmer."

After graduating in 1969, he worked at a variety of temporary jobs, such as selling dresses for his parents' dress manufacturing business in Chicago and teaching at Hamden Hall Country Day School in Hamden, Connecticut. In the summer of 1971, his research at the laboratory of Jose Zadunaisky at Yale University resulted in his first publication. With revived confidence, he returned to Harvard for graduate studies under Robert Perlman, and received his PhD in 1977.

Chalfie conducted his postdoctoral research at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) with Sydney Brenner and John Sulston, and the three published a paper in 1985 on "The Neural Circuit for Touch Sensitivity in C. elegans".[http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/reprint/5/4/956.pdf "The Neural Circuit for Touch Sensitivity in C. Elegans"] Chalfie then left the LMB in 1982 to join the faculty of Columbia University in the department of biological sciences and continued to study C. elegans touch mutants.

He married Tulle Hazelrigg. She later joined him on the faculty of Columbia University. She gave him permission to cite her unpublished research in his seminal Science paper "Green Fluorescent Protein as a Marker for Gene Expression"{{cite journal | doi = 10.1126/science.8303295 | last1 = Chalife | first1 = M | last2 = Tu | first2 = Y| year = 1994 | last3 = Euskirchen | first3 = G | last4 = Ward | first4 = WW | last5 = Prasher | first5 = DC | title = Green Fluorescent Protein as a Marker for Gene Expression | journal = Science | volume = 263 | issue = 5148| pages = 802–805 | pmid = 8303295 | bibcode = 1994Sci...263..802C | s2cid = 9043327 }} on condition that he made coffee, cooked, and emptied the garbage nightly for a month.[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/chalfie-slides.pdf Nobel Lecture slide 17]

Chalfie and his wife had a daughter, Sarah, in July 1992.

Chalfie was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

He slept through the phone call from the Nobel Prize Committee. When he woke up, he knew the prize would have been announced already, so he said "Okay, who's the schnook that got the Prize this time?" And so he opened up his laptop, got to the Nobel Prize site and found out that he was the schnook!{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/chalfie-telephone.html|title= Interview with Martin Chalfie|publisher=Nobel Foundation|first=Adam|last=Smith}}

In 2015, Chalfie signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change on the final day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed to then-President of the French Republic, François Hollande, as part of the successful COP21 climate summit in Paris.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mainaudeclaration.org/|title=Mainau Declaration|website=www.mainaudeclaration.org|access-date=January 11, 2018}}

Chalfie's lab uses the nematode C. elegans to investigate aspects of nerve cell development and function. The wealth of developmental, anatomical, genetic, and molecular information available for C. elegans provides a powerful and multifaceted approach to these studies.

He has published over 100 papers of which at least 25 have over 100 citations.{{cite web|url=http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_products/a-z/web_of_science/|title=Web of Science|publisher=Thomson Reuters|access-date=May 11, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110701061806/http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_products/a-z/web_of_science/|archive-date=July 1, 2011}}

He traces his work on green fluorescent protein to a 1988 seminar from Paul Brehm about bioluminescent organisms, which led to some crucial experiments in 1992, detailed in his paper "Green fluorescent protein as a marker for gene expression",{{cite journal |last=Chalfie |first=M. |display-authors=etal |year=1994 |title=Green fluorescent protein as a marker for gene expression |journal=Science |volume=263 |issue=5148 |pages=802–805 |doi=10.1126/science.8303295 |pmid=8303295|bibcode=1994Sci...263..802C |s2cid=9043327 }} which is among the 20 most-cited papers in the field of Molecular Biology & Genetics.{{cite web |first=Gary |last=Taubes |title=An interview with: Martin Chalfie, Ph.D.|url=http://www.in-cites.com/papers/DrMartinChalfie.html |work=InCites |date=December 2002|access-date=December 2, 2013}} Chalfie won a Golden Goose Award for this work in 2012.{{cite web | title=Green Fluorescent Protein | url=http://www.goldengooseaward.org/awardees/200352el6rpcnd3yibqw96m4yxtpvu | publisher=The Golden Goose Award | access-date=May 27, 2015 | archive-date=September 9, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909231925/http://www.goldengooseaward.org/awardees/200352el6rpcnd3yibqw96m4yxtpvu | url-status=dead }}

He received an honorary degree in physics from the University of Parma on July 4, 2023.{{Cite web |date=July 4, 2023 |title=L'Università di Parma celebra il Premio Nobel Martin Chalfie: laurea ad honorem in Fisica |url=https://www.unipr.it/notizie/luniversita-di-parma-celebra-il-premio-nobel-martin-chalfie-laurea-ad-honorem-fisica |access-date=July 5, 2023 |website=Università degli studi di Parma |language=it}}

• List of Jewish Nobel laureates

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{{Commons category|Martin Chalfie}}

• [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/faculty/chalfie/ Chalfie's lab Website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013222118/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/faculty/chalfie/ |date=October 13, 2012 }}
• {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture on December 8, 2008, GFP: Lighting Up Life
• [https://www.ibiology.org/cell-biology/developing-gfp/ Martin Chalfie's Short Talk: "Developing GFP as a Biological Marker"]
• [http://vimeo.com/22972364 GFP: Adventures in Nontranslational Research] lecture at the Linda Hall Library, April 26, 2011

{{2008 Nobel Prize winners}}

{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 2001-2025}}

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Category:1947 births

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Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry

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Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society

Category:Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal

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Category:Harvard Crimson men's swimmers