Don Craig Wiley

Template:Short description Template:Infobox scientist Don Craig Wiley (October 21, 1944 – Template:Circa November 15, 2001) was an American structural biologist.<ref name=natureobit>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=scopus>Template:Scopus</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Education

Wiley received his doctoral degree in biophysics in 1971 from Harvard University, where he worked under the direction of the subsequent 1976 chemistry Nobel Prize winner William N. Lipscomb, Jr.<ref>Harvard Gazette: Biologist Don C. Wiley, 1944-2001 Template:Webarchive</ref> There, Wiley did early work on the structure of aspartate carbamoyltransferase, the largest molecular structure determined at that time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Noteworthy in this effort was that Wiley managed to grow crystals of aspartate carbamoyltransferase suitable for obtaining its X-ray structure, a particularly difficult task in the case of this molecular complex.

Career and research

Wiley was world-renowned for finding new ways to help the human immune system battle such viral scourges as smallpox, influenza, HIV/AIDS and herpes simplex.

Famous quote: "I'm sorry, but I just don't understand anything in biology unless I know what it looks like."<ref name="OBIT">Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards and honors

In 1990, he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. His research was honored with the 1993 Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award. Harvard called Wiley "one of the most influential biologists of his generation." In 1999, Wiley and another Harvard professor, Jack L. Strominger, won the Japan Prize for their discoveries of how the immune system protects humans from infections.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

Wiley owned a British racing green-colored Aston Martin.<ref name="OBIT" />

He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the National Academy of Sciences,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the American Philosophical Society.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Disappearance and death

Wiley disappeared on November 15, 2001. The official coroner's report stated that Wiley died after falling off a bridge near Memphis, Tennessee; his body was found in the Mississippi River Template:Convert downstream in Vidalia, Louisiana a month later and his death was ruled to be an accident.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Shelby County Medical Examiner, Dr. O. C. Smith, conducted the investigation into Wiley's death.<ref name="What Happened to Don Wiley">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Smith was quoted by a Boston Magazine article by Doug Most, which states: "Of all the measurements Smith took, one stood out: 8 inches. That's how narrow the curb is from the road to the railing, which is only 43 inches high. 'If he stood against the rail, it's hitting him in the back of the thigh,' Smith says. 'If he's startled or caught by a gust from an 18-wheeler, his center of gravity is 47 inches, near the top rail, below his hip.'"<ref name="What Happened to Don Wiley"/>

Wiley was 6'3" and weighed 160 pounds, according to the Los Angeles Times.<ref>article " A Scientist’s Mystery" by Jeffrey Gettleman and Elizabeth Mehren, Nov. 30, 2001</ref>

See also

• List of solved missing person cases: 2000s