Alexander Rich personal archives

Alexander Rich, 1925-2015, was the William Thompson Sedgwick professor in the biology department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Rich served with the US Navy from 1943-1946 and received his BS from Harvard University in 1947. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1949. After graduating, Rich was a research fellow in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology until 1954, and then served as chief of the section on physical chemistry at the National Institute of Mental Health from 1954-1958. Rich joined the MIT faculty in 1958. While at MIT, he worked as an Investigator in NASA’s Viking Mission from 1969-1980. Rich continued to work at MIT until his passing in 2015.

Rich conducted extensive research in structural molecular biology, making considerable contributions to understanding the relationships between the structures and functions of DNA and RNA molecules. He and a team he led found the “left-handed” form of DNA, and the first biological role for it. Rich received the National Medal of Science, MIT’s James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, and the Lomonosov Large Gold Medal from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Rich was additionally a part of the National Academy of Sciences, the Philosophical Society, the French Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. (1)

1. MIT News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Alexander Rich Dies at 90.” Accessed December 9, 2020. https://news.mit.edu/2015/obituary-alexander-rich-dies-90-0428.