Richard Winyu Tsien (born 3 March 1945), is a Chinese-born American electrical engineer and neurobiologist. He is the Druckenmiller Professor of Neuroscience, Chair of the Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, and Director of the NYU Neuroscience Institute at New York University Medical Center, and also an emeritus faculty member of Stanford University School of Medicine.
Early life and education
Tsien was born in Tating, Kweichow, China and is a descendant of King of Wuyue Tsien Liu. Soon after his birth, Tsien's family moved to the United States. Tsien received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1965 and Master of Science degree in 1966, both in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tsien then won a Rhodes Scholarship and went to study in the UK at Wadham College, Oxford, from 1966 to 1969. Tsien obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in biophysics from the University of Oxford in 1970.
Career and research
From 1968 to 1970, Tsien was a Weir Junior Research Fellow at University College, Oxford. From 1969 to 1970, Tsien was a teaching fellow at Balliol College, Oxford.
In 1970, Tsien went back to the United States, and became an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology at Yale University School of Medicine from 1970 to 1974. From 1974 to 1979, Tsien was an associate professor in the same department, and was promoted to full professor in 1979.
In 1988, Tsien went to Stanford and founded the Stanford University Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, where he also served as the first chairman. From 1991 to 2001, Tsien was the Silvio Conte Director - National Institutes of Mental Health Center for Neuroscience Research. From 1988 to 2011, Tsien was the George D. Smith Professor at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. From 2000 to 2011, Tsien served as Co-Director for the Stanford Brain Research Center.
Tsien did important work on calcium channels, their mechanisms and roles in cell signaling pathways. Tsien's research also helps us understand the long-term plasticity of synapses.
From 1987 to 1988, Tsien served as president of the Society of General Physiologists. In August 2000, Tsien also served the Section Chair of Neurobiology of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
Selected honors & awards
1985, Kenneth S. Cole Award (for contributions to membrane biophysics) 1991, 1995, 1999, Kaiser Award for Outstanding and Innovative Teaching, from Stanford University 1993, Magnes Prize, from Hebrew University, Jerusalem 1994, elected to the United States Institute of Medicine 1996, awardee "Perspectives in Physiology: Walter B. Cannon Memorial Lecture", from the American Physiological Society 1996, elected to the Academia Sinica 1997, elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 1998, elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2000, elected Fellow of the Biophysical Society 2014 Bard Lecture, Johns Hopkins University
Personal life
Tsien's youngest brother Roger Y. Tsien, a biochemist, won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.