John Woodland Hastings

John Woodland Hastings
Born(1927-03-24)March 24, 1927
Salisbury, Maryland[1]
DiedAugust 6, 2014(2014-08-06) (aged 87)
Lexington, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materSwarthmore College, 1944-1947; BA 1947 (Navy V-12 medical officers training program)

Princeton University, 1948-1951; M.A. 1950, PhD. 1951

Johns Hopkins University, 1951-1953 Postdoctoral Fellow
Known forFounding circadian biology
AwardsNATO Senior Fellow in Science, Foundation Curie, Orsay, France, 1977
Scientific career
FieldsBioluminescence, Circadian rhythms
InstitutionsInstructor in Biological Sciences Northwestern University 1953-1957

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry University of Illinois 1957-1966 Professor of Biology Harvard University, 1966-1986;

Paul C. Mangelsdorf Professor of Natural Sciences Harvard University 1986 - 2014
ThesisOxygen concentration and bioluminescence intensity (1951)
Doctoral advisorE. Newton Harvey
Other academic advisorsWilliam D. McElroy

John Woodland "Woody" Hastings, (March 24, 1927 – August 6, 2014) was a leader in the field of photobiology, especially bioluminescence, and was one of the founders of the field of circadian biology (the study of circadian rhythms, or the sleep-wake cycle).[2] He was the Paul C. Mangelsdorf Professor of Natural Sciences and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University.[3][4][5] He published over 400 papers and co-edited three books.[5]

Hastings research on bioluminescence principally focused on bacterial luminescence (over 150 papers) and dinoflagellates (over 80 papers).[5] In addition to bacteria and dinoflagellates, he, with his students and colleagues, also published papers on the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of light production in fungi, cnidarians, ctenophores, polychaetes, insects (fireflies and dipterans), ostracod crustaceans, millipedes, tunicates, and fishes with bacterial light organs. His laboratory produced the first evidence for quorum sensing in bacteria,[6] early evidence of the molecular mechanisms of circadian clock regulation in organisms (first using dinoflagellate luminescence and then expanded to other cellular proteins),[2][7][8] and some of the initial studies of energy transfer in green fluorescent proteins (GFP) in cnidarian luminescence.[9][10]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT-obit-hastings was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b "2006 Farrell Prize recipient J. Woodland Hastings | Division of Sleep Medicine @ Harvard". Sleep.med.harvard.edu. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
  3. ^ "Faculty Profile: J. Woodland Hastings, PhD | Division of Sleep Medicine @ Harvard Medical School". Sleep.med.harvard.edu. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
  4. ^ Hastings Lab Home page Archived November 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b c "Hastings Lab: J. Woodland Hastings". Mcb.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
  6. ^ Hastings, J.W. and Greenberg, E.P. (1999)
  7. ^ Sweeney, B.M. and Hastings, J.W. (1957)
  8. ^ Hastings, J.W. (2007)
  9. ^ Morin, J.G. and Hastings, J.W. (1971)
  10. ^ Hastings, J.W. and Morin, J.G. (2006)