Devarajan (Dave) Thirumalai

Devarajan (Dave) Thirumalai
Born	India
Nationality	American
Education	MSc (1977) PhD Physical Chemistry (1982)
Alma mater	Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India University of Minnesota
Awards	Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1986–1988) Humboldt Research Award (2009) Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2009) Fellow of the Biophysical Society (2014) Fellow of the American Physical Society (2016) Oesper Award (2018) Irving Langmuir Prize (2019) Hans Neurath Award (2019) Founders Award (2025) Max Delbrück Prize (2025)
Scientific career
Fields	Biological Physics, Biophysics
Institutions	The University of Texas at Austin
Thesis	Effective Potential Studies of Electron-Atom and Electron- Molecule Collisions  (1982)
Doctoral advisor	Donald G. Truhlar

Devarajan (Dave) Thirumalai, an Indian-born American physicist, is the Collie-Welch Reagents Professor in Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. His research spans equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, such as the transition from liquid to amorphous state, polymer-colloid interactions, and protein and RNA folding. He is known for his contributions to the theories of protein/RNA folding, ^{[1] [2]} protein aggregation, ^[3] glasses (the Random First Order Transition – RFOT theory), ^{[4] [5]} and biological machines. ^[6] He also does research in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), ^[7] organization and dynamics of chromosome ^[8] and cell biophysics. ^[9] Prior to moving to the University of Texas at Austin, he was a distinguished university professor in the University of Maryland from 2010 to 2015.

Educational Background

Dave Thirumalai studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur where he earned a MSc degree (1977). He earned his doctorate degree in 1982 from the University of Minnesota under Donald G. Truhlar.

Academic career

After postdoctoral studies at the Columbia University in New York City, he joined University of Maryland as an assistant professor of physics in 1985. He is the founding director of the biophysics program in the University of Maryland. In 2016, he joined the University of Texas at Austin as the Collie-Welch Reagents Chair. ^[10]

Awards and honors

• 1986–1988 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.
• 1987–1992 Presidential Young Investigator Award.
• 2009 Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists.
• 2009 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
• 2011 Honorary Senior Hans-Fisher Fellow.
• 2014 Fellow of the Biophysical Society.
• 2015 Fellow of the American Physical Society. ^[11]
• 2016 Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Medal.
• 2016 ACS Theoretical Chemistry Award. ^[12]
• 2018 Oesper Award, Chemistry, University of Cincinnati. ^[13]
• 2019 APS Award, Irving Langmuir Prize. ^[14]
• 2019 Hans Neurath Award, Protein Society. ^[15]
• 2025 Founders Award, Biophysical Society. ^[16]
• 2025 Max Delbrück Prize, American Physical Society. ^[17]

References

1. Peter G Wolynes; Jose N Onuchic; Dave Thirumalai (17 March 1995). "Navigating the folding routes" . Science. 267 (5204): 1619–1620. Bibcode:1995Sci...267.1619W. doi:10.1126/science.7886447. PMID   7886447. S2CID   5199444.
2. D Thirumalai; Changbong Hyeon (11 March 2005). "RNA and protein folding: common themes and variations" . Biochemistry. 44 (13): 4957–4970. doi:10.1021/bi047314+. PMID   15794634.
3. D Thirumalai; DK Klimov; RI Dima (11 April 2003). "Emerging ideas on the molecular basis of protein and peptide aggregation" . Current Opinion in Structural Biology. 13 (2): 146–159. doi:10.1016/S0959-440X(03)00032-0. PMID   12727507.
4. Theodore R Kirkpatrick; Devarajan Thirumalai; Peter G Wolynes (1 July 1989). "Scaling concepts for the dynamics of viscous liquids near an ideal glassy state" . Physical Review A. 40 (2): 1045–1054. Bibcode:1989PhRvA..40.1045K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.40.1045. PMID   9902230.
5. T. R. Kirkpatrick; D. Thirumalai (March 2015). "Colloquium: Random first order transition theory concepts in biology and physics". Reviews of Modern Physics. 87 (1): 183–209. Bibcode:2015RvMP...87..183K. doi: 10.1103/RevModPhys.87.183 . S2CID   123937625.
6. Mauro L Mugnai; Changbong Hyeon; Michael Hinczewski; D Thirumalai (7 April 2020). "Theoretical perspectives on biological machines". Reviews of Modern Physics. 92 (2): 025001. arXiv: 1908.11323 . Bibcode:2020RvMP...92b5001M. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.92.025001. S2CID   201671124.
7. Upayan Baul; Debayan Chakraborty; Mauro L Mugnai; John E Straub; Dave Thirumalai (26 March 2019). "Sequence effects on size, shape, and structural heterogeneity in intrinsically disordered proteins". The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 123 (16): 3462-3474. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcb.9b02575. PMC   6920032 . PMID   30913885.
8. Guang Shi; Lei Liu; Changbong Hyeon; Dave Thirumalai (2018). "Interphase human chromosome exhibits out of equilibrium glassy dynamics". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 3161. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.3161S. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05606-6. PMC   6082855 . PMID   30089831.
9. Abdul N Malmi-Kakkada; Xin Li; Himadri S Samanta; Sumit Sinha; Dave Thirumalai (27 April 2018). "Cell growth rate dictates the onset of glass to fluidlike transition and long time superdiffusion in an evolving cell colony". Physical Review X. 8 (2): 021025. arXiv: 1708.03397 . Bibcode:2018PhRvX...8b1025M. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevX.8.021025 .
10. "Dave Thirumalai to Chair Department of Chemistry".
11. "2015 APS Fellow Archive".
12. "2016 Physical Chemistry Division Awards".
13. "Dave Thirumalai Receives 2018 Oesper Award".
14. "Dave Thirumalai Awarded Langmuir Prize in Chemical Physics".
15. "Dave Thirumalai Receives the Hans Neurath Award".
16. "Devarajan Thirumalai to Receive Biophysical Society's 2025 Founders Award".
17. "Devarajan Thirumalai Receives Max Delbrück Prize in Biological Physics".