Biophysical Newsletter - February 2014

3

Biophysical Society Newsletter

2014

february

research, because they force me to think in ways that I could not have contemplated.” In addition to the rewards of exciting science, Beckett finds ful- fillment in teaching students, and watching them develop into mature scientists. Being a prominent member of the Biophysical Society has given Beck- ett even more opportunities to assist and encourage young scientists in their careers. Certainly, she has many qualities of a good mentor; as a colleague, Royer says, “[She is] enthusiastic, with very high scientific standards. Fun as well.” Another friend since grad school, Suzanne Scarlata , has also been impressed with Beckett’s spiritedness, saying, “If I have to describe Dorothy, I would have to point out her keen sense of justice and the passion she has for everything she is involved with.” When she is not working, Beckett spends much of her time devoted to a second passion: marathon running. “As an Assistant Professor,” she says, “I started running for stress relief. Once I ran my first road race, I was hooked.” Since that first race, she estimates that she has run twenty-five marathons and hundreds of races of shorter distances. In fact, running is the only career outside of biophysics that she could see herself pursuing—that is, “If I were twenty-five years younger and much faster than I am,” she says. She also enjoys spending her leisure time observing national and world politics, watching her children, Anne and Michael, negoti- ate early adulthood, gardening, and cooking. Beckett applies her characteristic passion to science policy, as well, and to consideration of the future of the field. “Many of the tools that biophysicists have developed, including computation, single molecule and imaging techniques, and structural analysis are maturing,” Beckett says. “In the future, interdisci- plinary approaches involving application of a range of these technologies will be applied to understand- ing increasingly complex systems.” In this new and complex landscape, she says, “I hope that biophysi- cists do not abandon their quests to understand the seemingly simple phenomena, such as the role of water in biomolecular interactions and folding.” For the young scientists who will be shaping the future of biophysics, Beckett has one simple piece of advice: “Keep the fire in your belly, and your head on straight.”

Johns Hopkins University. “At the time, I thought that the combined molecular biological and quan- titative thermodynamic approaches available in the two laboratories would be ideal for determin- ing the molecular details of coupled equilibria in bacteriophage lambda developmental switch,” she says. This geographically complex arrangement did present its challenges, but worked out well for Beckett in the end. She learned what she calls, “an amazing amount of stuff” and was afforded an opportunity to meet and interact with inspiring scientists like Jim Bowie, Jim Hu , Madeline Shea , and Mike Brenowitz . Though Beckett has dedicated her career to studying science, she does not come from a family of scientists. Her father worked as a tool designer for United Technologies, while her mother was quite busy caring for fifteen children. Of all the siblings, only Beckett and her twin sister, Joanne, pursued science as a field of study. Joanne now uses her knowledge of chemistry to create pottery in London. For Beckett, working as a biophysicist has had its challenges over the years; the biggest at this time being the scarcity of available research funding, “Given the current slump, I suspect that this is true for many scientists,” Beckett says. Another major challenge was finding a geographical area where both Beckett and her husband, Neal Fedarko , would be gainfully employed. After sending many applications, both were able to find jobs: Fedarko is on the faculty in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, at Johns Hopkins, and Beckett is a professor in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at the University of Maryland. She describes herself as “a molecular biophysicist with a specific interest in biomolecular regulation. I have a keen interest in coupled equilibria and allostery, both how they work at the molecular level and their biological significance.” Currently, Beckett is working on de- termining crystal structures of proteins in the hopes that they will provide clues about how signals are communicated through a protein matrix. Learning new biology and new techniques is one of the most exciting aspects of Beckett’s work today. She says, “I love the surprises that result from

Dorothy Beckett finishes the 2013 Richmond Marathon where she was first in her age group.