chemistry

Peter S. Kim

Peter S. Kim 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 Peter S. Kim rather than just read about it. In short: Peter S. Kim (born April 27, 1958) is an American scientist.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Peter S. Kim (born April 27, 1958) is an American scientist. He was president of Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) 2003–2013 and is currently Virginia & D.K. Ludwig Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford University, Institute Scholar at Stanford ChEM-H, and Investigator at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Earlier, he was Professor of Biology at MIT, a Member of the Whitehead Institute, and an HHMI Investigator. Kim is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Engineering known for leadership in the discovery and development of novel drugs and vaccines used worldwide.

Early life and education Kim is of Korean descent. Kim grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey, the son of a single mother. His first job was in 1974 at a Roy Rogers restaurant, where he earned money to pay for college. Kim earned his A.B. in chemistry at Cornell University in 1979 where he conducted research with the late George P. Hess. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry at Stanford University under the guidance of Robert L. ("Buzz") Baldwin.

Career and research After his PhD, Kim was appointed by David Baltimore as one of the early Whitehead Fellows at the Whitehead Institute. Later, Kim was a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Member of the Whitehead Institute and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Kim is known for his studies of coiled coils and for discovering how proteins cause viral membranes to fuse with cells. The "spring-loaded mechanism" for viral membrane fusion laid the foundation for protein-engineering efforts aimed at stabilizing the metastable native state of membrane-fusion proteins, a critical feature of several vaccines, including those for SARS-CoV-2. He has a special interest in HIV/AIDS research and designed compounds that stop membrane fusion by HIV, thereby preventing it from infecting cells, and has pioneered efforts to develop an HIV vaccine based on similar principles. Kim also served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIDS Vaccine Research Committee. Kim joined Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) in 2001 as executive vice president, Research and Development. He was promoted to president in January 2003. In this role Kim oversaw all of Merck's drug and vaccine research and development activities. During his tenure, Merck gained approval of more than 20 new medicines and vaccines. These include Januvia (the first DPP-4 inhibitor for type 2 diabetes), Gardasil (the first vaccine for prevention of cervical cancer), Isentress (the first HIV integrase inhibitor), Zostavax (the first vaccine for the prevention of shingles in adults), and Rotateq (an oral vaccine for the prevention of rotavirus infection in infants). He also led the biomarker-based development of Keytruda. In 2013, he retired from Merck and was succeeded by Roger Perlmutter. He was appointed to the faculty at Stanford University in 2014.

Awards and honors Kim is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Other honors include:

NAS Award in Molecular Biology (1993) Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry (1994) DuPont Merck Young Investigator Award of the Protein Society (1994) Samsung Foundation Ho-Am Prize in Basic Science (1998) The Hans Neurath Award of the Protein Society (1999) Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, Pohang University of Science and Technology (2011) The Arthur Kornberg and Paul Berg Lifetime Achievement Award in Biomedical Sciences, Stanford University (2018)

Elected memberships Member, National Academy of Sciences Member, National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) Member, National Academy of Engineering Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology Fellow, Biophysical Society Member, Korean Academy of Science and Technology

Service Council, National Academy of Sciences Council, National Academy of Medicine Medical Advisory Board, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scientific Advisory Board, Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health Council, Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise AIDS Vaccine Research Committee, National Institutes of Health MIT Corporation, visiting committee, department of biology, MIT

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter S. Kim

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter S. Kim 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 Peter S. Kim 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 Peter S. Kim 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 Peter S. Kim

In research: Peter S. Kim 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 Peter S. Kim 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: Peter S. Kim is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 births, American academics of Korean descent, American biochemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter S. Kim 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 Peter S. Kim in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter S. Kim 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 Peter S. Kim out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter S. Kim in simple terms?

Peter S. Kim (born April 27, 1958) is an American scientist.

Why does Peter S. Kim 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 Peter S. Kim?

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 Peter S. Kim.