Daniel Chamovitz

Daniel Chamovitz (דניאל חיימוביץ; born April 18, 1963 ) is an American-born plant geneticist and the 7th President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel.[1] Previously he served as Dean of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, Israel, and the director of the multidisciplinary Manna Center Program in Food Safety and Security.[2]

Daniel Chamovitz
Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, the 7th President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Born (1963-04-18) April 18, 1963
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
CitizenshipIsrael, United States
Alma materYale University
(1993-1995, Postdoc)
Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1993, PhD, Genetics)
Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1986, B.Sc., Biology,)
Hopewell High School (Pennsylvania), Aliquippa, PA (1981)
Known forCarotenoid biosynthesis
Discovering the COP9_signalosome
What a Plant Knows (2012)
Spouse(s)Shira Yalon-Chamovitz
Scientific career
FieldsPlant Biology
Molecular genetics
Food security
ThesisMolecular Analysis of the Early Steps of Carotenoid Biosynthesis in Cyanobacteria: Phytoene Synthase and Phytoene Desaturase
Doctoral advisorJoseph Hirschberg

Biography

Daniel Chamovitz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. He began his undergraduate studies at Columbia University in New York City, NY, and then transferred to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he studied plant science. He received his Ph.D. in Genetics in 1992. From 1993 to 1996 he carried out postdoctoral research at Yale University, before accepting a faculty position at Tel Aviv University. In 2002, Chamovitz was a visiting scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and he has also been a Visiting Professor at the School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences at Peking University. He founded the interdisciplinary Manna Center Program in Food Safety and Security at Tel Aviv University in 2013, and served as Dean of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University from 2014 to 2018.

He was elected the 7th President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel, succeeding Rivka Carmi, serving since January 1, 2019, and holds the university's Miles and Lillian Cahn Chair in Food Security and Plant Science.[3]

Scientific career

During his doctoral research, in the lab of Joseph Hirschberg, Daniel Chamovitz cloned several genes involved in the biosynthesis of beta-carotene.[4][5][6] As a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Xing-Wang Deng at Yale University, he discovered the COP9 Signalosome (CSN) complex.[7][8] At Tel Aviv University he continued to work on this protein complex in order to understand its role in regulating plant responses to the environment with both Arabidopsis and Drosophila as model systems. Using genetic, biochemical, molecular and computational approaches, he has shown that CSN is essential for development in both plants and animals and is likely also involved in a number of human diseases, including cancer.[9] Chamovitz has published over 70 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals[10][11] with over 5,000 citations listed in Google Scholar.[12] He is also member of the Faculty of 1000, Biology.[13]

He is known for his popular science book What a Plant Knows,[14][15][16][17][18] which was first published in 2012, with an updated and revised edition appearing in 2017. The book won a silver medal from the Nautilus Book Awards and was listed as one of the Top 10 Science books in Amazon for 2012. What a Plant Knows has been translated and published in 20 countries. The book also served as the base for a course with the same name taught on Coursera by Chamovitz to over 100,000 students,[19][20][21] beginning in 2013.

References
  1. "Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, President-Elect of BGU". Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  2. "Prof. Daniel Chamovitz | The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences". en-lifesci.tau.ac.il. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  3. "Ben-Gurion University of the Negev - BGU President - Prof. Daniel Chamovitz". In.bgu.ac.il. 2019-01-01. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
  4. Chamovitz, D.; Pecker, I.; Hirschberg, J. (1991-06-01). "The molecular basis of resistance to the herbicide norflurazon". Plant Molecular Biology. 16 (6): 967–974. doi:10.1007/BF00016069. ISSN 1573-5028. PMID 1907510.
  5. Chamovitz, Daniel; Misawa, Norihiko; Sandmann, Gerhard; Hirschberg, Joseph (1992-01-27). "Molecular cloning and expression in Escherichia coli of a cyanobacterial gene coding for phytoene synthase, a carotenoid biosynthesis enzyme". FEBS Letters. 296 (3): 305–310. doi:10.1016/0014-5793(92)80310-D. ISSN 0014-5793.
  6. Cunningham, Francis X.; Chamovitz, Daniel; Misawa, Norihiko; Gantt, Elisabeth; Hirschberg, Joseph (1993-08-09). "Cloning and functional expression in Escherichia coli of a cyanobacterial gene for lycopene cyclase, the enzyme that catalyzes the biosynthesis of beta-carotene". FEBS Letters. 328 (1–2): 130–138. doi:10.1016/0014-5793(93)80980-9. ISSN 0014-5793.
  7. Chamovitz, Daniel A; Wei, Ning; Osterlund, Mark T; von Arnim, Albrecht G; Staub, Jeffrey M; Matsui, Minami; Deng, Xing-Wang (1996-07-12). "The COP9 Complex, a Novel Multisubunit Nuclear Regulator Involved in Light Control of a Plant Developmental Switch". Cell. 86 (1): 115–121. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80082-3. ISSN 0092-8674.
  8. Wei, Ning; Chamovitz, Daniel A.; Deng, Xing-Wang (1994-07-15). "Arabidopsis COP9 is a component of a novel signaling complex mediating light control of development". Cell. 78 (1): 117–124. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(94)90578-9. ISSN 0092-8674.
  9. Lee, Mong-Hong; Zhao, Ruiying; Phan, Liem; Yeung, Sai-Ching J. (2011-09-15). "Roles of COP9 signalosome in cancer". Cell Cycle. 10 (18): 3057–3066. doi:10.4161/cc.10.18.17320. ISSN 1538-4101. PMC 3218617. PMID 21876386.
  10. "Chamovitz, Daniel". scholars.bgu.ac.il. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  11. "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  12. "Daniel Chamovitz - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  13. "Daniel Chamovitz - F1000Prime". f1000.com. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  14. Chamovitz, Daniel. "What a Plant Knows". Scientific American. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  15. WHAT A PLANT KNOWS by Daniel Chamovitz | Kirkus Reviews.
  16. "What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz « Botany One". Botany One. 2013-05-18. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  17. Alun, Salt. "What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz". Annals of Botany. Oxford Journals. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  18. Smith, P. D. (2012-06-19). "What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  19. Cann, AJ (9 October 2013). "What a Plant Knows – MOOC Report". aobblog.com/. Oxford Journals. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  20. Dichek, Bernard (5 Sep 2013). "Into Classrooms, and Beyond". BIOENTREPRENEUR:TRADE SECRETS. nature.com. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  21. "Reaching the masses: true botanical evangelism « Botany One". Botany One. 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
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