Howard Schachman, who had been a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the graduate school of the University of California, Berkeley, died Aug. 5, 2016, from complications of pneumonia. He was 97.
Schachman graduated from M.I.T. in 1939, and served in the Navy from 1944 to 1946. He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton in 1948. That year, he began teaching at Berkeley.
As a biochemist, he was a foremost exponent of the ultracentrifuge — an instrument used to examine the structure of proteins. He wrote a widely read textbook describing its uses. His most significant work encompassed the study of enzymes and how to alter their activity, a phenomenon known as allostery.
He was dedicated to social and political causes. From 1949 to 1951, Schachman was one of 200 faculty members who protested taking a loyalty oath. During the free-speech movement of the 1960s, he was an advocate for students on campus. Schachman was a great proponent of bioethics and taught a graduate student course on the subject. He guided the careers of many eminent biochemists.
He is survived by two sons, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. His wife, Ethel, died in 2013.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.