Biophysical Society Newsletter - October 2015

3

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2015

OCTOBER

then accepted an opportunity to work with Rich- ard Henderson at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where she learned the techniques of electron crystallography for membrane proteins. She stayed with Henderson’s group for the final year of her fellowship and then took an assistant professor position at Columbia University in the depart- ment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, where she remained for a few years before moving on to RPI to head a new Center for Biophysics as Professor of Chemistry. Wallace took a sabbatical visit to the crystallogra- phy department at Birkbeck College, University of London. “I wanted to immerse myself in crystal- lography, as I realized that looking directly at molecules was an important additional technique needed in my ‘toolkit’ for studying membrane proteins,” she explains. Just after she had returned home from her stay, Wallace was offered a perma- nent position in the department at Birkbeck, and moved her lab to London. Though Wallace had many supportive mentors and supervisors in the early stages of her career, there were people along the way who doubted her ability because of her gender. Wallace recalls “being told by the lecturer in my first college un- dergraduate physics class—consisting of about 40 men and me—that I should go and get married, and leave the science to the men! Also, in one of my first job interviews (at an anonymous but well respected university) I was told ‘You may notice we don’t have any female professors in this depart- ment…that’s because we have never found any good enough.’ I have worked hard to prove them both wrong.” Her students have been the beneficiaries of this attitude and effort. Sara Abdulla , Comment Edi- tor at Nature , earned her Masters of Science in crystallography at Birkbeck College with Wallace as one of her tutors. “Bonnie is a PI of worldwide repute,” Abdulla says, “because she’s fearsomely bright, she works 24/7, and she forges alliances

and brings people with her. She never elbows peo- ple out of the way or pulls the ladder up behind her. [She has taught me] that a woman can get to the top in science and retain her integrity.” Martin Ulmschneider met Wallace while asking her to be his return host for a Marie Curie Interna- tional Fellowship, and the two have collaborated ever since. “Bonnie loves research and academic pursuit, and that radiates through her interactions with those around her,” Ulmschneider says. “She has given incredible support to all her students and postdocs…One of the hallmarks of her group is that nobody wants to leave it—we all keep com- ing back whenever we can.” “I feel that inspiring and training new generations of scientists will ultimately be an important long- term legacy,” Wallace says. “I am so very proud of the many students and postdocs who have passed through my lab, seeing what they later achieve in academia, industry, or outside of science.” Wal- lace and her husband, Robert Janes , a Biochemist at Queen Mary University of London, hold a barbeque each year for their current and former lab members, to stay in touch and encourage net- working between different scientific generations. Wallace and Janes enjoy traveling together, and have been able to see the world as part of their work together on synchrotron radiation circular dichroism beamlines. This, and other methods development in the area of CD spectroscopy, is in addition to her primary interest in the struc- ture and function of ion channels. Wallace also enjoys working with artists to help connect science and art for students and the general public. “An interesting experience in this regard was a public dialogue I participated in with a dance company director and a sculptor, in which they—and the audience—were amazed to hear that a scientist could be passionate about what they do.” And passionate she is. Wallace says, “I think the best thing is seeing something for the first time that no one else has ever seen. It still sends tingles up my spine.”

Wallace with a synchrotron beamline.

Profilee-at-a-Glance Institution University of London Birbeck College Area of Research Structure and function of sodium channels; develop- ment of tools and methods for CD spectroscopy