Incoming Biophysical Society President Ed Egelman, University of Virginia, has always been exceedingly curious. As a child growing up in Long Island, New York, he was always very motivated. He skipped a grade in elementary school and another in high school, which led him to college at the early age of 16. Egelman decided to attend Brandeis University due to its small size and reputation, as well as the progressive atmosphere on campus. He studied political science there for two years before leaving Brandeis in 1970 to work full-time for Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a student activist orga­nization that was at that time a major force in the anti-Vietnam War move­ment. Egelman worked with SDS for five years and then returned to Brandeis in 1975 at the end of the War. His interests had changed during his time away from the classroom, and he decided to study physics upon his return. Egelman graduated in 1976 with his Bachelor of Arts in physics.

Egelman began a PhD program in experimental physics at Harvard Univer­sity studying elementary particles. This program was not a great fit for him, as he had envisioned working in a smaller lab setting that would require less funding. He decided to leave Harvard, and rather than pursue his PhD at another institution, Egelman followed his passion for food and cooking to France. He enrolled in culinary school, but after a short time, realized that he did want a career in science.

Egelman then returned to Brandeis to pursue a PhD in biophysics in the lab of his undergraduate advisor, David DeRosier. “My initial work as a graduate student was on F-actin, using electron microscopy of nega­tively stained samples as the main tool. This was due to the work that my PhD advisor, David DeRosier, was doing at the time on actin. The tools largely grew out of the work that David had helped develop while he was a postdoc at the MRC [Medical Research Council], which led to the entire field of 3-dimensional electron microscopy,” Egelman explains. The experience of working with DeRosier made a lasting impression on Egelman, who names DeRosier as someone he admires to this day. “David DeRosier has had an exceptional ca­reer and has made many contributions, including mentoring many individu­als who have helped develop three-dimensional electron microscopy. He has a terrific understanding of both physics and biology,” Egelman says.

“If you have a good idea, you cannot expect that everyone will recognize that it is good and publish your papers and fund your grants. You need to convince people that you are right, and this can often be frustrating. Good ideas ultimately win out in science, but the path can be torturous.”

After completing his PhD in 1982, Egelman joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge as a postdoctoral fellow. He had indepen­dent support for his research, so “I was able to basically do whatever I want­ed,” he says. With that freedom, he began self-guided work on RecA proteins.

Egelman was hired as an assistant professor at Yale University, where he stayed for a few years before leaving for the University of Minnesota, where he continued to work on F-actin and RecA proteins. He stayed in Minnesota for ten years, and then moved to University of Virginia, where he remains today.

Currently, Egelman is using a method that he de­veloped to study filaments from bacteria, viruses, and eukaryotic cells. “Because two of the main polymers (F-actin and RecA-DNA filaments) that I worked on early in my career were very disor­dered, I developed a new method around 1999 that attempted to surmount these problems[…]. We have now been applying these methods to a large range of projects, ranging from pili of patho­genic bacteria (such as the organisms responsible for cholera, meningitis, and gonorrhea) to the viruses that infect plants and thermophiles (such as the organisms that can live in nearly boiling acid),” he details.

Egelman hopes to take full advantage of recent advances in his field as his work progresses. “We are now on the cusp of a dramatic revolution in the cryo-EM field, as with new direct electron detectors we can reach near-atomic resolution for many protein polymers and nucleoprotein poly­mers,” Egelman says. “Many of these could not be studied previously at even low resolution, so the advance is far from incremental. I hope to take advantage of this in my future work, as there are a large number of systems that have appeared intrac­table to such structural studies in the past that we can now solve readily.”

Egelman’s colleague Emil Reisler of the University of California, Los Angeles, says, “Ed is a wonderful colleague. He is very supportive, ready to help, and invest his expertise, time, and broader perspective in the project in which you interest him. Being as passionate about science as he is, the discussions of joint projects with him are very lively and fun to have.”

In addition to biophysics, Egelman still pursues his passion for cooking, which nicely complements his love of wine. He shares these interests with his wife Adrienne Weinberger, a fine arts appraiser. “Cook, eat, drink wine, watch movies, and read books. That pretty much sums up the rest of my life. We watch 100 to 150 mov­ies a year, so my passionate interest in food and wine is almost matched by my interest in film,” Egelman explains. “Ed is a real con­noisseur of good food and an excellent cook. In fact, his list of publications includes even a comment on Sauce Bearnaise,” adds Reisler.

He has also had ample opportunity to travel to speak at conferences and to collaborate with fellow researchers. “Both my wife and I love to travel, and my scientific collaborations, seminars, and meeting invitations have taken us all around the world. I now have several collaborations with groups in Paris. Going there is always a great hardship, but someone must do it!” he jokes.

Prior to beginning his term as President, Egel­man had long been involved in other Biophysical Society activities. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Biophysical Journal from 2007-2012, and has served as chair of the Public Affairs Committee since 2012. He has also been active on the The­matic Meetings Committee. “The thematic meet­ings are a great development. I helped organize one of the earliest ones in 2010 in Singapore on Actin, the Cytoskeleton, and the Nucleus, and by all accounts it appears to have been a success. I am currently involved in organizing a 2015 The­matic Meeting that will be held in Rio de Janeiro on Polymers and Self-Assembly: From Biology to Nanomaterials,” he says. In his personal life, Egelman is dedicated to promoting the field of biophysics; he even mentioned the Society in his daughter’s wedding announcement in the New York Times.

Egelman’s career thus far has taught him that one of the most important qualities for a scientist is perseverance. He offers this encouragement to young scientists: “If you have a good idea, you cannot expect that everyone will recognize that it is good and publish your papers and fund your grants. You need to convince people that you are right, and this can often be frustrating. Good ideas ultimately win out in science, but the path can be torturous.”