The 2011 Florida Award

Call for Nominations

Purpose:
To recognize leadership and contributions toward the advancement of the profession of chemistry.

Establishment and Support:
The award was established in 1952 by vote of the Florida Section of the American Chemical Society and has been given each year since then at the annual scientific meeting of the Florida Sections.

Nature:
The award consists of a plaque and $500, plus travel expenses for the purpose of attending the meeting to receive the award and to give an address. The Florida Section of the American Chemical Society will also provide up to $500 in support of the symposium centered around the award recipient's research interests. This specially organized symposium will be part of the Florida Annual Meeting and Exposition that is held in May each year unless the spring national ACS meeting is held in Orlando.

Rules of Eligibility:
A nominee must be a resident of the Southeastern United States and must have made outstanding contributions to teaching, research, publications or service in advancing the profession. The award recipient gives an address at the Annual Meeting.

To Submit a Nomination:
The nominator should obtain the consent of the nominee, complete the form available at http://www.chem.fsu.edu/chemlab/nomination.php outlining the nominee's qualifications and contributions to the profession which would be recognized by the Florida Award and arrange to have two seconding letters of support for the nomination.
Nomination forms and seconding letters must be received by Tuesday November 30, 2010.

Note: The 2011 Florida Annual Meeting and Exposition (FAME 2011) will be held May 12-14, 2011 at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club near Tampa, FL. The award recipient is expected to give an address at the meeting during a special symposium centered around the recipient's research interests and to be present at the Awards Banquet to receive the Award. Nominators should confirm that the nominee can be present to participate in the meeting program and to receive the Award.

 

PAST WINNERS OF THE FLORIDA AWARD

1952 Paul Gross Duke University 1953 A. E. Wood University of Mississippi 1954 C. B. Pollard University of Florida 1955 H. E. Skipper Southern Research Institute 1956 George K. Davis University of Florida 1957 C. R. Hauser Duke University 1958 Karl Dittmer Florida State University 1959 J. E. Hawkins University of Florida 1960 H. H. Sisler University of Florida 1961 Michael Kasha Florida State University 1962 Jack Hine Georgia Institute of Technology 1963 George Butler University of Florida 1964 C. T. Bahner Carson-Newman College 1965 Werner Herz Florida State University 1966 Paul Tarrant University of Florida 1967 O. K. Rice University of North Carolina 1968 Earl Frieden Florida State University 1969 John Baxter University of Florida 1970 S. P. McGlynn Louisiana State University 1971 Ray Lawrence USDA Naval Stores Laboratory 1972 James V. Quagliano Florida State University 1973 Gregory Choppin Florida State University 1974 Sidney Fox University of Miami 1975 Dean F. Martin University of South Florida 1976 William Jones University of Florida 1977 Cecil Criss University of Miami 1978 Harry Walborsky Florida State University 1979 Mary Good Louisiana State University 1980 Raymond Sheline Florida State University

1981 Wallace Brey University of Florida 1982 James D. Winefordner University of Florida 1983 Theodore A. Ashford University of South Florida 1984 Leo Mandelkern Florida State University 1985 Brian Stevens University of South Florida 1986 Harry P. Schultz University of Miami 1987 DeLos F. DeTar Florida State University 1988 Edward K. Mellon Florida State University 1989 William R. Dolbier University of Florida 1990 R. Bruce King University of Georgia 1991 George R. Newkome University of South Florida 1992 Charles E. Carraher Florida Atlantic University 1993 Norman L. Allinger University of Georgia 1994 Albert Padwa Emory University 1995 Alan R. Katritzky University of Florida 1996 Luis Echegoyen University of Miami 1997 N. Yngve Öhrn University of Florida 1998 Jack Saltiel Florida State University 1999 Mostafa El-Sayed Georgia Institute of Technology 2000 Rodney J. Bartlett University of Florida 2001 Thomas J. Vickers Florida State University 2002 Alan G. Marshall Florida State University 2003 Kenneth B. Wagener University of Florida 2004 John G. Dorsey Florida State University 2005 Charles R. Martin University of Florida 2006 Roger M. Leblanc University of Miami 2007 Naresh Dalal Florida State University 2008 George Christou University of Florida 2009 Kirk S. Schanze University of Florida

 

Dr. Timothy Cross

2010 Florida Award

 

 

	Professor Timothy A.Cross, is an Earl Frieden Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University, and Director of the NMR Spectroscopy and Imaging Program at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

 

 

During the past 25 years since he began as Assistant Professor in the then Department of Chemistry (now the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) at Florida State University, Prof. Cross has built an international reputation in the NMR spectroscopy of membrane-bound peptides and proteins.  His work has led to high resolution molecular structures in liquid crystalline lipid bilayer environments with important implications for the general field of membrane proteins as well as the specific protein and disease fields of the research.  In addition to the structural work, he has experimentally characterized chemical properties and molecular dynamics for these systems, taking advantage of unique solid state NMR capabilities.

 

Cross's most notable breakthrough was the characterization of the transmembrane antibiotic, gramicidin A, that forms a monovalent cation selective channel.  In 1989 he determined that the structure is a right-handed helix, reversing the prior belief that it was left-handed (Nicholson et al., Biochemistry – 118 citations).  In 1993 he characterized the complete backbone structure (Ketchem et al., Science – 429 citations), and in 1997 solved the complete 3D structure including side chains (Ketchem et al., Structure – 165 citations).  That result was the first biological macromolecular structure solved by solid state NMR and it was the first structure deposited in the Protein DateBase that had been characterized in a liquid crystalline lipid bilayer environment (prior structures were based on x-ray crystallography or solution-phase NMR).

 

More recently, Cross has focused on the M2 protein, a tetrameric protein from influenza A virus that has been a successful target for drug development.  He began from solid-state NMR of the tetrameric transmembrane domain in a liquid crystalline lipid bilayer environment.  In 1997 he showed that the helical bundle had a left-handed packing arrangement with the helices displaying substantial tilt angles (Kovacs et al., Biophys. J. –128 citations).  The monomer of the backbone structure was solved in 2001 (Wang et al., Protein Sci. – 124 citations) and as a tetramer in 2002 (Nishimura et al., Biochemistry – 93 citations).  The backbone structure in the presence of the anti-viral drug amantadine was solved in 2007 (Hu et al., Biophys J. – 35 citations).  The recent x-ray and solution NMR structures highlight the importance of characterizing membrane protein structure in an environment as close to the native environment as possible.  The four histidine pKa values in the pore of this proton channel suggested that the first two protons bind cooperatively and at a high pH, with the third proton activating the channel near pH 6.5 (Hu et al., 1996, PNAS – 45 citations).  A structure of a longer construct is currently being refined in the Cross lab and spectroscopy is proceeding on the full length protein.

 

Over the years, Tim has mentored 27 undergraduates, 40 graduate students, and 20 postdocs at FSU.  His prior graduate students have earned 8 M.S. degrees and 20 Ph.D. degrees, and 5 more are currently in his lab.  Of the postdocs and graduate students who have moved beyond postdoctoral positions, 14 are tenured or tenure track faculty including faculty at Pohang (S. Korea), Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Cornell, Hamilton College, Massey (New Zealand), and Penn State.

 

 

 

 

Last updated: September 23 , 2010  
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