Michael W. Deem

Michael William Deem
Nationality	American
Alma mater	California Institute of Technology (BS) University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Known for	parallel tempering
Awards	National Science Foundation CAREER Awards (1997) Top 100 Young Innovator, MIT Technology Review (1999) Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (2009)
Scientific career
Fields	Biochemical engineering Genetic engineering
Thesis	Field-theoretic treatment of disordered systems  (1994)
Doctoral advisor	David Chandler
Doctoral students	Jiankui He
Website	mwdeem.org

Michael William Deem ^[1] is an American engineer, scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. He is known for his work in biochemical and genetic engineering, and for his contributions to parallel tempering methods in computational science.

Education

Deem received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1991 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1994. His doctoral thesis research was titled Field-theoretic treatment of disordered systems, ^[1] under the supervision of David Chandler. He conducted postdoctoral research in physics at Harvard University from 1995 to 1996 with David R. Nelson.

Career

Deem began his academic career at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1996, where he rose to the rank of associate professor of chemical engineering. From 2002 to 2020, he was the John W. Cox Professor of Biochemical and Genetic Engineering and professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University in Houston, Texas. ^[2] He served as the founding director of Rice’s graduate program in systems, synthetic, and physical biology (2012–2014) and as chair of the bioengineering department (2014–2017). ^[3]

He has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Biomedical Engineering Society. ^[4] Deem has received several awards, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1997), recognition as a Top 100 Young Innovator by the MIT Technology Review (1999), an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (2000), the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2002), the Allan P. Colburn Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2004), the Professional Progress Award of AIChE (2010), the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Award from the TAMEST, a visiting scholar appointment with Phi Beta Kappa (2012–2013), ^[4] and the Donald W. Breck Award in Molecular Sieve Science from the International Zeolite Association (2019).

Deem, being a faculty member at Rice University, served as the doctoral advisor to He Jiankui, a PhD student of his from 2008 to 2010, who later became known for the 2018 He Jiankui affair surrounding the first genetically modified babies. ^{[5] [6]} In November 2018, Rice University announced a full investigation into Deem's involvement in the CRISPR'd baby project. ^[7] He resigned from Rice University in 2020. ^[8]

From 2021 to 2022, Deem was an entrepreneur in residence at Khosla Ventures, where he helped select, mentor, and incubate portfolio companies. From 2023, Deem was a managing partner with Angeliki Fund. ^[9]

Selected publications

• Earl, David J.; Deem, Michael W. (2005). "Parallel tempering: Theory, applications, and new perspectives". Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics . 7 (23): 3910–3916. arXiv: physics/0508111 . doi:10.1039/B509983H.
• Bogarad, Leonard D.; Deem, Michael W. (1999). "A hierarchical approach to protein molecular evolution". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 96 (6): 2591–2595. arXiv: cond-mat/9903310 . doi:10.1073/pnas.96.6.2591. PMID   10077558.
• Gupta, Vishal; Earl, David J.; Deem, Michael W. (2006). "Quantifying influenza vaccine efficacy and antigenic distance". Vaccine . 24 (18): 3881–3888. arXiv: q-bio/0503030 . doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2006.01.010. PMID   16504238.
• Lin, Li-Chiang; Berger, Adam H.; Martin, Richard L.; Kim, Jihan; Swisher, Joseph A.; Jariwala, Kuldeep; Rycroft, Chris H.; Bhown, Abhoyjit S.; Deem, Michael W.; Haranczyk, Maciej; Smit, Berend (2012). "In silico screening of carbon-capture materials". Nature Materials . 11: 633–641. doi:10.1038/nmat3336. PMID   22641192.
• Falcioni, Marco; Deem, Michael W. (1999). "A biased Monte Carlo scheme for zeolite structure solution". The Journal of Chemical Physics . 110 (3): 1754–1766. arXiv: cond-mat/9809085 . doi:10.1063/1.477812.
• Earl, David J.; Deem, Michael W. (2004). "Evolvability is a selectable trait". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101 (32): 11531–11536. arXiv: q-bio/0407012 . doi:10.1073/pnas.0404656101. PMID   15277680.
• Deem, Michael W. (2013). "Statistical mechanics of modularity and horizontal gene transfer". Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics . 4: 287–311. doi:10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-030212-184223.

See also

• Evidence of common descent

References

1. "Field-theoretic treatment of disordered systems". ProQuest. 1994.
2. Marchione, Marilynn (2018-11-26). "Chinese researcher claims first gene-edited babies". AP News. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
3. "Home". mwdeem.org.
4. "2012-2013: Michael W. Deem". Ohio Wesleyan University. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
5. Qiu, Jane (2019-01-31). "American scientist played more active role in 'CRISPR babies' project than previously known". STAT. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
6. Williams, Shawna (2019-01-29). "The US Scientists Who Knew About CRISPRed Babies". The Scientist. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
7. Joseph, Andrew (26 November 2018). "Rice opens investigation into researcher who worked on CRISPR'd baby project". StatNews.com . Retrieved 28 July 2021.
8. "The creator of the CRISPR babies has been released from a Chinese prison". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
9. "Angeliki Fund". angeliki-fund.com.

External links

• Official website
• Michael W. Deem publications indexed by Google Scholar