Biographical Sketch: Dorothy Beckett, Ph.D.

Dorothy Beckett, Ph.D., is director of the NIGMS Division of Biophysics, Biomedical Technology, and Computational Biosciences (BBCB). The division funds quantitative research that spans the full range of biological organization from the molecular to the population level and supports technology development and resources to facilitate advances in basic biomedical research.

Prior to assuming the BBCB directorship, Beckett was a faculty member in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at the University of Maryland, College Park, where, in addition to teaching, she directed a research program that focused on the basic biophysical chemistry of protein function and its significance for biological regulation. Her multidiscliplinary research program employed a broad range of techniques including solution thermodynamic and kinetic measurements, structural biology, and computation. Beckett, who has long record of service to the biophysics community, was president of the Biophysical Society from 2014 to 2015.

Beckett earned an A.B. in chemistry from Barnard College at Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She performed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University.

To contact Beckett, send email to dorothy.beckett@nih.gov.

If you’re a reporter wishing to interview Beckett​, contact the NIGMS Communications and Public Liaison Branch.