chemistry

Joel Sussman

Joel Sussman is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Joel Sussman rather than just read about it. In short: Joel L. Sussman (Hebrew: יואל זוסמן; born September 24, 1943) is an Israeli structural biologist best known for his studies on acetylcholinesterase, a key protein involved in transmission of nerve signals.

Key takeaways

Joel Sussman belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Joel Sussman to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Joel Sussman from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Joel L. Sussman (Hebrew: יואל זוסמן; born September 24, 1943) is an Israeli structural biologist best known for his studies on acetylcholinesterase, a key protein involved in transmission of nerve signals. He is Professor Emeritus of Structural Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and is Co-Director of the Israel Structural Proteomics Center.

Early life and education Sussman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Great Neck, L.I., New York, to Ida (née Arbeit), a mathematics professor, and Harry “Pi” Sussman, an electronics engineer. He attended Great Neck North High School, where he participated in an enriched science and computing program established in the United States following the launch of Sputnik 1. As a teenager, he was active in photography and loved reading science fiction books. He earned a B.A. in mathematics and physics from Cornell University from 1961-65. In the summer of 1962, he spent 10 weeks in the Ivory Coast working and teaching young Ivorian students as part of Operation Crossroads Africa, which later served as a model for the Peace Corps. Prior to departing for Africa, he was invited to the White House as part of a group of in the program, where he met President John F. Kennedy. He then pursued doctoral studies in biophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), completing his Ph.D. in 1972 under Cyrus Levinthal. His doctoral work focused on RNA structure and advances in biological crystallography.

Academic career Sussman undertook postdoctoral research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1972) with Yehuda Lapidot, and then at Duke University (1973–1976) with Sung-Hou Kim. In 1976, he immigrated to Israel with his family and joined the Weizmann Institute of Science as a senior scientist in the Department of Structural Chemistry. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1980 and Full Professor in 1982. After his formal retirement in 2016, he remained active in research as Professor Emeritus. Sussman has also held visiting positions at several institutions in the United States, including Rutgers University, the National Cancer Institute (NIH), the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the NIH, the Fox Chase Cancer Center, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Leadership and service At the Weizmann Institute, Sussman held multiple leadership roles:

Head, Department of Structural Chemistry (1984–1985) Head, Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly (1988–1989) Incumbent, Morton and Gladys Pickman Chair of Structural Biology (2002–2014) Director, Israel Structural Proteomics Center (2002–2014), later Co-Director From 1994 to 1999, he served as Director of the Protein Data Bank (PDB) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He has served on numerous scientific committees in Israel and internationally, including as President of the Israel Crystallographic Society.

Research Sussman’s research spans structural biology, enzymology, and bioinformatics, with over 300 scientific publications.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Joel Sussman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Joel Sussman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Joel Sussman before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Joel Sussman ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Joel Sussman

In research: Joel Sussman appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Joel Sussman in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Joel Sussman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 births, Academic staff of Weizmann Institute of Science, Cornell University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Joel Sussman outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Joel Sussman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Joel Sussman means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Joel Sussman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Joel Sussman in simple terms?

Why does Joel Sussman matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Joel Sussman?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Joel Sussman.