Carlos José Bustamante (born 1951 in Lima, Peru) is an American scientist. In 2001, he was named one of the best scientists in the United States by Time Magazine. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Biography

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Bustamante is professor of molecular and cell biology, physics, and chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he has held since 1998. He received his B.S. degree from Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, his masters in biochemistry from San Marcos University, and his Ph.D. degree in biophysics from UC Berkeley, where he studied with Ignacio Tinoco, Jr. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Bustamante studied with Marc Maestre. Before moving to Berkeley, he was an HHMI investigator at the University of Oregon.

Research focus

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Carlos Bustamante uses novel methods of single-molecule visualization, such as scanning force microscopy, to study the structure and function of nucleoprotein assemblies. His laboratory is developing methods of single-molecule manipulation, such as optical tweezers, to characterize the elasticity of DNA, to induce the mechanical unfolding of individual protein molecules, and to investigate the machine-like behavior of molecular motors.

Awards and positions

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• Kellogg Foundation scholarship during the Master in Biochemistry (1973-1975)
• Fullbright Commission
• Institute of International Education Fellow (1975-1976)
• Abraham Rosenberg scholarship, UC, Berkeley (1975-1976)
• Research Assistant, UC Berkeley (1976-1981)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, UC Berkeley (1981-1982)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of New Mexico (1982-1986)
• Searle Scholar (1984)
• Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (1985)
• Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of New Mexico (1986-1989)
• Presidential Lecturer in Chemistry, University of New Mexico (1986)
• State of New Mexico Eminent Scholar (1989)
• Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of New Mexico (1989-1990)
• Professor of Chemistry and Member of the Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon (1991-1998)
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, (1994-1998, 2000)
• Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (1995)
• Member of the Science Advisory Board of the Searle Scholars Program (1997-2000)

External links

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• Bustamante won the Southern Peru 2004 Award
• The Bustamante Lab Home Page at University of California, Berkeley
• Carlos Bustamantes's Deparment of Chemistry Faculty Home Page, University of California at Berkeley
• Carlos Bustamante at Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• Protein Wizard: America's Best Science & Medicine CNN/Time
• San Marcos University
• Cayetano Heredia University

Living people | Members and associates of the US National Academy of Sciences | Peruvian Americans | Peruvian chemists | 1951 births