John joined the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the College of Medicine of the University of California, Irvine in 1973. “My initial start-up package was $23,000, an unheard-of high for the medical school,” John recalls.
At that time, the medical school was separated from the main campus, where Betsy was, by a parking lot and a cow pasture. John would have to cross the pasture to join Betsy for lunch, as he often did. They continued to collaborate in unraveling the workings of the photoreactivating enzyme.
John’s postdoctoral work in Berkeley on the magnetic CD of porphyrins got him started on the idea of a multifunctional spectrometer. “I realized that one instrument can do both CD and magnetic CD, which tell you different things,” John recalls. “For a little incremental cost, you can greatly expand what an instrument can do.”
In Irvine, John began developing this idea. He came up with an emission and polarization spectrometer, which combined the ability to measure CD, magnetic CD, and fluorescence. Later, he would add more capabilities, culminating in the culminating in the “FluoroDichroSpectroPhotometer.” It’s the first of John’s instruments that can measure multiple properties in one spectral scan.
Also at Irvine, John began designing computer interfaces for instruments. “In those days, you got signals from optical instruments on a chart paper,” John says. “Now all instruments are computerized, but when I set up my lab, you had to computerize them yourself.” One such computerized spectrophotometer John designed and built later enabled the measurement of the absorption spectrum of DNA at wavelengths greater than 300 nm.
John received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 1976.
John joined the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the College of Medicine of the University of California, Irvine in 1973. “My initial start-up package was $23,000, an unheard-of high for the medical school,” John recalls.
At that time, the medical school was separated from the main campus, where Betsy was, by a parking lot and a cow pasture. John would have to cross the pasture to join Betsy for lunch, as he often did. They continued to collaborate in unraveling the workings of the photoreactivating enzyme.
John’s postdoctoral work in Berkeley on the magnetic CD of porphyrins got him started on the idea of a multifunctional spectrometer.
“I realized that one instrument can do both CD and magnetic CD, which tell you different things,” John recalls. “For a little incremental cost, you can greatly expand what an instrument can do.”
In Irvine, John began developing this idea. He came up with an emission and polarization spectrometer, which combined the ability to measure CD, magnetic CD, and fluorescence. Later, he would add more capabilities, culminating in the “FluoroDichroSpectroPhotometer.”
It’s the first of John’s instruments that can measure multiple properties in one spectral scan.
Also at Irvine, John began designing computer interfaces for instruments. “In those days, you got signals from optical instruments on a chart paper,” John says. “Now all instruments are computerized, but when I set up my lab, you had to computerize them yourself.” One such computerized spectrophotometer John designed and built later enabled the measurement of the absorption spectrum of DNA at wavelengths greater than 300 nm.
John received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 1976.
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