Download Sidney Hecht obtained his Ph

CV of Professor Sidney Hecht
Sidney Hecht obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Illinois.
Following studies as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in Molecular Biology at the
University of Wisconsin, he was a member of the MIT Chemistry faculty from
1971-79. He was the John W. Mallet Professor of Chemistry and Professor of
Biology at UVa from 1978-2008. From 1981-87 he held concurrent appointments
at Smith Kline & French Laboratories, first as Vice President Preclinical R&D,
then as Vice President Chemical R&D. Since 2008 he has been Director of the
Center for BioEnergetics in the Biodesign Institute, and Professor of Chemistry at
Arizona State University. He has been an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, and a John
Simon Guggenheim Fellow. Hecht received the 1996 Cope Scholar Award of the
ACS and was selected as Virginia’s Outstanding Scientist for 1996. He received
the 1998 Research Achievement Award of
the American Society of
Pharmacognosy and is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, and of the American Society of Pharmacognosy. In
2011, he was awarded the ASU Faculty Achievement Award in Defining Edge
Research: Innovation. He has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of the
American Chemical Society since 1992.
His research interests include the synthesis and mechanism of action of
bleomycin group antitumor agents. He identified DNA topoisomerase I as the
locus of action of the alkaloid camptothecin and participated in the discovery and
development of the camptothecin analogue topotecan, marketed under the trade
name Hycamtin for the treatment of ovarian cancer and small cell lung cancer. At
ASU, his Center is studying the chemistry of the mitochondrial electron transport
chain with the goal of devising therapeutic strategies to treat mitochondrial
diseases. Other research interests include the elaboration and study of proteins
containing synthetic amino acids. He has published more than 400 research
papers and has supervised more than 250 graduate students and postdoctoral
associates.