Robert Tycko


Robert Tycko is an American biophysicist whose research primarily involves solid state NMR, including the development of new methods and applications to various areas of physics, chemistry, and biology. He is a member of the Laboratory of Chemical Physics in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. He was formerly a member of the Physical Chemistry Research and Materials Chemistry Research departments of AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. His work has contributed to our understanding of geometric phases in spectroscopy, physical properties of fullerenes, skyrmions in 2D electron systems, protein folding, and amyloid fibrils associated with Alzheimer’s disease and prions.

Education

In 1980, Tycko received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University, where he majored in chemistry. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, under the direction of Alexander Pines, and then did postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania in the laboratory of Prof. Stanley J. Opella.

Selected honors