精品国产一区二区桃色

Award

Folding@home founder Pande: a creative leader in molecular dynamics

He won the 精品国产一区二区桃色 2015 DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences
Preethi Chander
By Preethi Chander
March 1, 2015

, the mastermind behind the project, is the 2015 recipient. This award recognizes Pande, a professor of chemistry at Stanford University, for his innovative development of computational technologies that enable life-science research at the molecular level.

Pande-web.jpg "I'm truly honored to receive the 2015 DeLano award. I got to know Warren DeLano and greatly appreciated his vision for scientific software. That vision has made an impact in my own work and in countless others throughout the world. " — VIJAY PANDE

The Folding@home project pushes the frontiers of scientific crowdsourcing. Molecular dynamics techniques used to explore questions in protein folding and computational drug design require large amounts of computational power. The Folding@home project uses the idle processing power of thousands of volunteered computers around the world; each solves subtasks within the greater problem. These simulations are of great interest in disease research, such as that into Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and cancer.

“He built a novel vision and an important enterprise in computational biology,” said of Stony Brook University, who nominated Pande for the award. He “has gotten thousands of people involved in caring about protein structures and pharmaceutical discovery and wanting to help.”

Born in Trinidad to Indian parents, Pande trained as a physicist. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At MIT, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship, he worked under Toyoichi Tanaka and Alexander Yu Grosberg.

Along with exploring questions in theoretical and biophysical chemistry, Pande pushes the limits of supercomputing paradigms. Folding@home has become the most powerful supercomputer cluster in the scientific world. Recently, Pande teamed up with Google to use its cloud-based computer systems to simulate the receptor-site transformations in G-protein-coupled receptors. Also, in collaboration with Pande’s lab, Sony just released its for smartphones, which can be downloaded from Google Play.

at the University of California, Berkeley, who wrote in support of Pande’s nomination for the award, described Pande as “one of the most prominent of the current generation of leaders in the field and certainly one of the most creative.”

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.

Learn more
Preethi Chander
Preethi Chander

Preethi Chander did her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and her postdoctoral work in eye and vision research. She is interested in science policy and communications.

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we鈥檒l send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in People

People highlights or most popular articles

Understanding the roles of extracellular matrix and vesicles in valvular disease
Profile

Understanding the roles of extracellular matrix and vesicles in valvular disease

Oct. 30, 2025

MOSAIC scholar Cassandra Clift uses mass spectrometry and multiomics to study cardiovascular calcification and collagen dysregulation, bridging her background in bioengineering and biology to investigate extracellular vesicles and heart disease.

Learning, leading and lifting others
Profile

Learning, leading and lifting others

Oct. 23, 2025

Tigist Tamir鈥檚 journey from aspiring astronaut in Ethiopia to cancer researcher at the University of North Carolina highlights the power of mentorship, persistence and curiosity in shaping a scientific career focused on discovery and equity.

Biochemists and molecular biologists sweep major 2025 honors
News

Biochemists and molecular biologists sweep major 2025 honors

Oct. 20, 2025

Recent Nobel, MacArthur and Kimberly Prize honorees highlight the power of biochemistry and molecular biology to drive discovery, including immune tolerance, vaccine design and metabolic disease, and to advance medicine and improve human health.

Subramanian receives electron microscopy honor
Member News

Subramanian receives electron microscopy honor

Oct. 13, 2025

He delivered remarks at the International Conference on Electron Microscopy in Bangalore, India.

Bioart for fall: From order to disorder
Art

Bioart for fall: From order to disorder

Oct. 7, 2025

The cover of the fall issue of ASBMB Today was created by ASBMB member, Soutick Saha, a bioinformatics developer at Wolfram Alpha LLC.

Doudna wins Priestley Medal
Member News

Doudna wins Priestley Medal

Oct. 6, 2025

She will receive a $20,000 research grant and will formally accept the honor at the ACS Spring 2026 conference.