AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion

Biography

Andrew Pohorille received Ph.D. in biophysics from Department of Physics, University of Warsaw in 1978. Subsequently, he was postdoctoral fellow at the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique in Paris, working with Prof. Bernard Pullman. Between 1982 and 1992 he was on the research faculty at the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley. Since 1992 he has been professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California San Francisco. He joined the staff of Exobiology Branch at NASA-Ames in 1996. Since 1986 he has been principal investigator in the NASA Exobiology Program. His NASA-related research projects involve molecular-level computer simulations of the structure, functions and evolution of the earliest living cells, the structure and properties of cometary ices and high-performance computing. His other research activities are devoted to studying interfacial phenomena, the mechanism of anesthetic action and functioning of cellular receptors.