chemistry

William Pearson (scientist)

William Pearson (scientist) 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 William Pearson (scientist) rather than just read about it. In short: William Raymond Pearson is professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics in the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. Pearson is best known for the development of the FASTA format.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

William Raymond Pearson is professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics in the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. Pearson is best known for the development of the FASTA format.

Education Pearson graduated with a BS in chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received his PhD in 1977 from Caltech. As a graduate student, he published several papers describing computer programs for analyzing biological data.

Career and research After his PhD, Pearson did a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. In 1983, he joined the faculty of Biochemistry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Immediately after joining the faculty, he collaborated with David J. Lipman at the NIH to write the FASTP program, and later FASTA. Pearson's research interests are in computational biology. He was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow in 2008, and an International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) Fellow in 2018 for outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William Pearson (scientist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William Pearson (scientist) 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 William Pearson (scientist) 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 William Pearson (scientist) 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 William Pearson (scientist)

In research: William Pearson (scientist) 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 William Pearson (scientist) 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: William Pearson (scientist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American biochemist stubs, American bioinformaticians, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William Pearson (scientist) 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 William Pearson (scientist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what William Pearson (scientist) 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 William Pearson (scientist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is William Pearson (scientist) in simple terms?

William Raymond Pearson is professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics in the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. Pearson is best known for the development of the FASTA format.

Why does William Pearson (scientist) 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 William Pearson (scientist)?

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 William Pearson (scientist).