Santa Fe Institute

Bio

Alvin L. Crumbliss is currently Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Chemistry at Duke University, where he has held various positions since 1970.    For the period 2007 – 2011 he served as Dean of Natural Sciences, and interim Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and Dean of Trinity College.  Previous administrative positions include Chair of the Chemistry Department (1991-95) and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Chemistry (1979-82).  He has held visiting faculty positions at the Université Paris–Orsay (1978, 1985, & 1989), Oxford University (1985), Ecole Européenne des Hautes Etudes des Industries Chimiques de Strasbourg (1995), Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Paris (1995), Université J. Fourier de Grenoble (1996, 1999), Université Paris VII (2005, 2006), the Santa Fe Institute (Sabbatical Visitor ; 2011), and the Biophysics Institute, Genoa, Italy (2012).  Dr. Crumbliss was the Swiss University System Troisième Cycle Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry in 1999, the Greek Chemical Society Lecturer in 2001, and the Karcher Lecturer (Univ OK) in 2002.  Since 1995 he has been an invited lecturer at 130 universities and conferences throughout the US, Canada, Australia, Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Dr. Crumbliss is Vice Chair and Chair (2010/2012) of the Environmental BioInorganic Chemistry (EBIC) Gordon Research Conference and a member of the BioIron and BioMetals international conference organizing committees (1995, 2004, 2010). Dr. Crumbliss is a member of the Board of Directors of the JEPA-LIMMAT Foundation, Zurich Switzerland, which promotes third world economic development through the education of young scientists.    

Honors recognizing Dr. Crumbliss’ research a NATO Senior Scientist Fellowship (1978), Duke University Scholar – Teacher of the Year Award (1987; third awardee), and a Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Knox College (2005). Dr. Crumbliss was one of four recipients world wide in 1995 of a twelve-month research professorship (Professeur de l'Académie, Chaire Elf - Académie des Sciences) co-sponsored by the French Academy of Science, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and Elf-Aquitaine.  Dr. Crumbliss received the North Carolina American Chemical Society Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2009.    He has also been recognized for his teaching and service at Duke with the David and Janet Vaughn Brooks Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award (2004) and the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award (2007; first awardee).  He is an Amercian Chemical Society Fellow (2011) and was the recipient in 2003 of the North Carolina Section American Chemical Society Hobbs Award for service to the profession through the American Chemical Society.   Dr. Crumbliss currently or previously has served on the editorial advisory boards of Inorganic Chemistry, CHEMTRACTS - Inorganic Chemistry, Metallomics and Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, was an Associate Editor of IEEE Sensors Journal (2003-6), and is currently  Associate Editor of BioMetals.

Dr. Crumbliss’ research on transition metals is at the interface between chemistry and biology and has included the synthesis of new coordination compounds with novel properties and as bio-molecule mimics, mechanistic studies relevant to the function and transport of metal ions in environmental and biological systems, and studies of metalloproteins relevant to biosensing devices and selected biological functions such as small molecule transport and storage, and cooperative effects.  Dr. Crumbliss and co-workers’ have explored the iron paradox: that iron is an essential nutrient to virtually all living cells, but is also toxic.  This necessitates a tight network of chemical control. Dr. Crumbliss has published over 200 refereed journal and monograph articles and chapters, plus several critical reviews.

Dr. Crumbliss earned his A.B. with College Honors from Knox College, his Ph.D. from Northwestern University under the direction of Fred Basolo, and was a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Southern California.