The character arc of Carolyn Bertozzi
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 10 October 1966 in Boston. Between then and now sit a chemistry degree from Harvard taken with highest honours, a supervisor who was impressed enough to make her write a thesis she then won a prize for, a year at Bell Labs, a doctorate at Berkeley finished in 1993 after her adviser was diagnosed with cancer in her third year and left the field, a discovery that viruses bind to sugars in the body, a whole area of chemistry she named, a MacArthur award at thirty three, a first for a woman in 2010, a professorship at Stanford, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Carolyn Bertozzi?
Her supervisor left in her third year. She finished it anyway.
She took her chemistry degree at Harvard with the highest honours, working on the design and construction of a photoacoustic calorimeter. Her supervisor was impressed enough that he required her to write a thesis on the project, which she did, and which won an undergraduate thesis prize. She graduated in 1988 and spent time at Bell Labs before going to Berkeley for a doctorate.
While at Berkeley she discovered that viruses can bind to sugars in the body. That discovery is the origin of her whole field. Glycobiology is the study of the carbohydrate structures on the surfaces of cells, and it turns out to matter for cancer, for inflammation and for viral infection.
In her third year of graduate school her adviser was diagnosed with colon cancer, took a leave of absence, and changed career by enrolling in medical school. That left her and the rest of the laboratory to complete their doctoral work with no direct supervision. She finished in 1993.
What she built afterwards has a name she gave it. Bioorthogonal chemistry means reactions that will run inside a living system without interfering with it, which is a very hard requirement and an extremely useful one, because it lets you label and track things inside a living body. She developed the analytical tools to study glycans and what they do in disease.
She received a MacArthur award at thirty three. In 2010 she became the first woman to receive a faculty prize for invention. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005, the Institute of Medicine in 2011 and the National Academy of Inventors in 2013, led the launch of a chemistry society's first open access journal in 2014, and in 2022 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with two others, for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.
The moments
Carolyn Bertozzi's timeline.
The 1960s
Born in Boston
Everyday. Boston, in the middle of the 1960s.
The 1980s
A thesis she was made to write
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A supervisor who insisted, and a prize that followed.
Harvard, summa cum laude
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Top of the class, and then a famous laboratory.
The 1990s
Viruses bind to sugars
Milestone, and it changed everything. One observation in a graduate laboratory, and a field came out of it.
Her supervisor falls ill
Setback, and it changed everything. Third year of a doctorate, and nobody left to ask.
Change laboratory, or finish it alone
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: finish it unsupervised, taken, or move to another lab. She finished in 1993, received a MacArthur award at thirty three, and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022.
She finishes it anyway
Milestone, and it changed everything. Finished, unsupervised, on time.
A genius award at thirty three
Milestone, and it changed everything. Six years out of the doctorate she finished alone.
The 2000s
She names the field
Milestone, and it changed everything. She named a branch of chemistry, which is not a common thing to do.
The National Academy of Sciences
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Three national academies, over eight years.
The 2010s
A first for a woman
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The first woman ever given it.
A journal open to everybody
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A journal anybody can read, which in chemistry is a statement.
Stanford, and a research chair
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A chair, an institute post, and a laboratory she used to run.
The 2020s
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Milestone, and it changed everything. The field she named, and the prize for naming it.
A woman who finished her doctorate unsupervised went on to name a field and win a Nobel Prize in it. What she set moving is a way of doing chemistry inside a living body without disturbing it, and a demonstration that the supervision you lose is sometimes replaced by the thing you had to become.
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Carolyn Bertozzi: frequently asked questions
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Where does this timeline of Carolyn Bertozzi's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Carolyn Bertozzi, English Wikipedia biography.
- Award records for the MacArthur Fellowship, the Lemelson-MIT Prize faculty award in 2010 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022.
- Her adviser's illness is reported in one line as the record gives it, because it is his illness and not hers.