Martin Gruebele

Martin Gruebele
Born	(1964-01-10) January 10, 1964 (age 58) Stuttgart, Germany
Citizenship	American
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley, California Institute of Technology
Known for	Protein folding, scanning tunneling microscopy, ultrafast laser spectroscopy
Awards	Hans Neurath Award of the Protein Society, Nakanishi Prize, Sackler Prize, Friedrich Bessel Research Prize, Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Fellowship
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry, Physics, Biophysics, Computational biology
Institutions	University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Academic advisors	Richard Saykally, Ahmed Zewail
Website	http://www.scs.illinois.edu/mgweb/

Martin Gruebele (born January 10, 1964 in Stuttgart, Germany)^[1] is a German-born American physical chemist^[2] and biophysicist who is currently James R. Eiszner Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Physics, Professor of Biophysics and Computational Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he is the principal investigator of the Gruebele Group. The James R. Eiszner Endowed Chair was previously held by Peter Guy Wolynes.^[3]

Education[]

He completed his B.S in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984, with the University Certificate of Distinction and Department Citation for Highest Honors. He was advised by Ken Sauer (biophysics), Wilhelm Maier (organic synthesis), and Richard J. Saykally (laser spectroscopy). He did his graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley in the laboratory of Richard J. Saykally, where he was a University Fellow (1984-1986), IBM Predoctoral Fellow, (1986-1987), and a Dow Chemical Graduate Fellow (1987-1988). Subsequently he held a postdoctoral position with Ahmed Zewail at California Institute of Technology, after which he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois in 1992.

Current positions[]

Dr. Gruebele was Head of Chemistry (2017-2020) and currently James R. Eiszner Endowed Chair (2008-present) in Chemistry, Professor of Physics, Professor of Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, Professor in the Center for Advanced Study [1], and Professor in the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine. He also is a faculty member of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, and was an Adjunct Professor of Physics at Michigan State University to support biological physics faculty mentoring.

Research[]

His research covers a wide range of areas in chemical and biological physics, including the kinetics of biological systems, quantum dynamics of energy flow within molecules, and optically assisted scanning tunneling microscopy. A common theme of his research is the implementation of state-of-the-art laser and microscopy techniques to interrogate and manipulate complex systems, coupled with quantum or classical simulations. He has published more than 300 articles, book chapters and reviews on topics ranging from quantum computation, to RNA and protein folding in the test tube and inside cells, to fish swimming behavioral studies.^[4]

Recent work[]

• Dynamics of fast-folding proteins to make the connection between experiment and physics-based computer simulations of protein folding.^[5]
• FreI (Fast Relaxation Imaging) that combines fluorescence microscopy and fast temperature jump or osmotic pressure jump to study protein dynamics inside living cells and living animals.^[6][7]
• A sub-microsecond pressure jump technique to study fast protein refolding and helpe guide computer simulations (molecular dynamics) for how proteins fold.^[8]
• With Martina Havenith, Terahertz Absorption Spectroscopy elucidating for the first time the role of water as a designer fluid that helps proteins change shape.^[9]
• Two-state dynamics recorded on glass surfaces using time-resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, to measure the size and heterogeneous dynamics of cooperatively rearranging regions on a glass.^[10]
• SMA-STM (Single Molecule Absorption detected by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy), a technique that can image excited state orbitals of nanostructures with sub-nanometer position resolution^[11] and sub-picosecond time resolution.^[12]
• With Stephen Boppart, non-linear interferometric vibrational imaging which produces easy-to-read, color-coded images of tissue, outlining clear tumor boundaries with more than 99% confidence.^[13]

Awards[]

• Gruebele is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2013), a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2010), and a Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2008).
• He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (2015), American Physical Society (2002), and the Biophysical Society (2005).
• Gruebele has received national and international awards, such as the ,^[14] the Nakanishi Prize,^[15] the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize^[16] in the Physical Sciences (Tel Aviv University, 2008), the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel^[17] Prize (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 2005), and the Coblentz Award^[18] (Coblentz Society, 2000). He was also awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1997), a Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation (1995), the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Fellowship (1998, 1992), a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship (Packard Foundation, 1994), a National Young Investigator Award (NSF, 1994), and a Beckman Fellowship, 1995-1996.^[19]

Gruebele collaborated with Hanoi University of Science to port University of Illinois Department of Chemistry undergraduate curriculum for Science in Vietnam.^[20] Recently, he has been on the list of "Teachers Ranked Excellent by their Students" at Illinois multiple times (most recently 2021),^[21] and received the School of Chemical Sciences Teaching Excellence Award twice.^[22]

Personal[]

Gruebele is married to Nancy Makri,^[23] who is also a Professor of Chemistry and Physics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They have two children, Alexander and Valerie. He has a keen interest in cycling, running and triathlon^[24] and has competed in many ultra-distance events, such as the 2013 Boston Marathon^{[25][circular reference]}, the 2016 solo Race Across America,^[26] the 2019 Badwater Ultramarathon^[27][28] and the Ironman World Championship.^[29] He has written a how-to book on ultraracing.^[30]

See also[]

• Nancy Makri
• Kurt Wüthrich
• Vijay Pande
• David Baker
• Valerie Daggett
• W. E. Moerner
• Paul Lauterbur
• List of biophysicists

Notes[]

External links[]

• Dr. Gruebele’s Group
• His faculty profile
• Beckman Institute Directory
• energy flow within molecules
• optically assisted tunneling microscopy and SMA-STM
• quantum or classical simulations
• quantum computation
• inside cells
• behavioral studies