Jane S. Richardson Oral History Interview, November 9, 2007

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Summary

Creator:
Richardson, Jane S.
Abstract:
Jane S. Richardson (1941- ) is a James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry. She is known for her work with protein structures. This collection contains 1 oral history interview conducted on November 9, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry as part of the Women in Duke Medicine Oral History Exhibit. In this interview, Richardson discusses her work with her husband in the Department of Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Department of Biochemistry at Duke University Medical Center, including her work with protein structures and her ribbon drawings.
Extent:
1 interview (1 master CD, 1 use CD, and 1 transcript)
Language:
English
Collection ID:
OH.RICHARDSONJ

Background

Scope and content:

Includes 1 oral history interview with Jane S. Richardson conducted on November 9, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry as part of the Women in Duke Medicine Oral History Exhibit.
In this interview, Richardson discusses her work with her husband, David Richardson, in the Department of Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Department of Biochemistry at Duke University Medical Center, including her work with protein structures and her ribbon drawings.

Biographical / historical:

Jane Shelby Richardson was born on January 25, 1941 and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. She received her BA in philosophy in 1962 and her MA and MAT from Harvard in 1966. Although she does not have a formal PhD, she has been given three honorary doctorates, from Swarthmore College (1986), the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (1994), and the University of Richmond in Virginia (2003).
From 1966 to 1969 she was a technical assistant in the Department of Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where her husband, David Richardson, was studying to get his PhD with Professor Albert F. Cotton. In 1969, they solved the crystal structure of Staphylococcal nuclease. They spent a year at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and then came to Duke in 1970, where she worked as an associate in the Department of Anatomy until 1984, a medical research assistant in the Department of Biochemistry until 1988, and a medical research associate professor in the Department of Anatomy until 1991, when she became a James B. Duke Professor in the Department of Biochemistry.
Richardson's most noted accomplishment is her ribbon drawings outlining protein structures, first published in 1981. The drawings are used widely in computer adaptations, and her 1981 paper continues to be cited. Jane and David worked together in their lab to figure out the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules. The Richardson Lab was a pioneer in the field of protein de novo design, as well as Mage and kinemages, early molecular graphics systems. Jane and David learned a great deal about aspects that affect the 3-D shape of proteins and how the 3-D shape affects the behavior of proteins. They also designed and made synthetic proteins. These synthetic proteins reveal a great deal about how natural proteins work.
Jane Richardson is a MacArthur Fellow, a member of the Institute of Medicine, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of numerous awards.

Acquisition information:
Accession A2007.138 (November 2007)
Processing information:

Processed by Jessica Roseberry: June 2008; encoded by Dawne Howard Lucas: September 2008

Arrangement:
Organized into the following series: Interview, November 9, 2007.
Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Duke University Medical Center Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
DACS

Contents

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Restrictions:

None.

Terms of access:

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Jane S. Richardson Oral History Interview, Duke University Medical Center Archives.