Biochemistry Laboratory

Rod Boyer served on the faculty at Hope College, Holland, MI, where he taught, researched, and wrote biochemistry for 26 years. He earned his B.A. in chemistry and mathematics at Westmar College (Iowa) and his Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry at Colorado State University. After three years as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with M. J. Coon (cytochromes P-450) in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan Medical School, he joined the chemistry faculty at Hope. There he directed the work of over 75 undergraduate students in research supported by the NIH, NSF, Dreyfus Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Petroleum Research Fund (ACS). With his students, he published numerous journal articles in the areas of ferritin iron storage and biochemical education. He spent a sabbatical year as an American Cancer Society Scholar in the lab of Nobel laureate, Tom Cech at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Rod is also the author of Modern Experimental Biochemistry (Third Edition, 2000, Benjamin-Cummings) and Concepts in Biochemistry (Third Edition, 2006, John Wiley & Sons) and serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (BAMBED). He is a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) and a former member of its Education and Professional Development Committee that recently designed the undergraduate biochemistry degree recommended by the ASBMB. Rod now resides in Bozeman, Montana, where he continues to write and consult in biochemical education.