Zimm, Bruno Hasbrouck, 1920-2005

Born in Woodstock, New York on 31 October 1920. Died on 26 November 2005. Education: A.B., Chemistry, Columbia University (1941), M.S., Chemistry, Columbia University (1943), Ph.D., Chemistry, Columbia University (1944). Employment: 1941-1944 Columbia University; 1944-1946 Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn; 1946-1952 University of California, Berkeley; 1951-1960 General Electric Company; 1960- University of California, San Diego.

Bruno Hasbrouck Zimm (1920-2005) was a prominent biophysical and polymer chemist. He is best known for his work on understanding the fundamental physical and chemical properties of DNA. He earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1944, and toward the end of World war II, participated in war-related research on light scattering by smokes. While teaching at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, he collaborated with polymer scientist Herman Mark. He later continued his work on light scattering at the University of California, Berkeley, and invented the "Zimm Plot" for determining size and shape factors for large molecules. He then worked at General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York, during which time he continued to study synthetic polymers. In 1960, he accepted a position at the University of California, San Diego, where he helped establish the Department of Chemistry, along with Joseph Mayer, Stanley Miller, David Bonner, and Stanley Mills. After his arrival at UCSD, Zimm began a long-term experimental project to find the true lengths of native DNA molecules. Later on in his research career, he focused on theoretical schemes for the counter-ion environment around DNA.