ATHENS, Ohio -- Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, Jane Richardson, James B. Duke Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Duke University, will give a public lecture Monday, April 28, at 8 p.m. in 235 Morton Hall on the Ohio University campus.

The topic of her lecture is "Admiring Proteins: Art & Metaphor in Molecular Biophysics."

Her visit is co-sponsored by Ohio University's Phi Beta Kappa Chapter, the departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry & Biochemistry and Physics & Astronomy, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, Honors Tutorial College and the College of Arts & Sciences.

Richardson has worked for nearly 40 years on research to understand the 3-D structure of protein molecules, including their description, determinants, folding, evolution, and control. Most recently she has concentrated on the development and use of a new method that calculates hydrogen-atom contacts, with application to bioinformatics and especially to structural genomics.

Richardson earned her bachelor's degree from Swarthmore and two master's degrees from Harvard. Without a Ph.D., she has become a biophysicist, a MacArthur fellow, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2001, she received the Emily M. Gray Award of the Biophysics Society.

In addition to her public lecture for a general audience, as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Richardson, will be on campus April 28 and 29, giving several classroom presentations, meeting informally with students and faculty and touring Ohio University's Edison Biotechnology institute.